Cradle Will Fall
by Culture Shockk
Summary: Four years ago, five l'Cie fought together to take down the Sanctum. In the aftermath, three were praised as heroes while their Gran Pulsian counterparts were named Cocoon's greatest villains. Now they meet again as war brews between their worlds to find that their priorities, allegiances, and possibly feelings for each other have changed. AU (Enemies of Cocoon universe). FLight
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

"…And this wing is where we perform most of our data testing."

Heels loudly clicked against the shiny linoleum floor as three Sanctum officials made their way down the halls of the Sunleth Scientific Research Center.

"Thanks to the increase in our budget last year, we were able to run more experiments and pay for more state of the art equipment in which to analyze it," the esteemed doctor and lead researcher of the facility continued to explain before coming to a stop in the middle of the somewhat deserted hallway. He turned to face the other two officials who had been on his heels. One was the facility's large and brutish security head, whose bad temper and foul mouth usually always made him uncomfortable. The other was a guest. An attractive, young woman with pale skin, clear blue eyes, and light pink hair who had come from Sanctum headquarters in Eden.

"I'm sorry that I don't have a better prepared tour for you, Sergeant Farron," the doctor apologized, studying his guest with slight interest as she silently let her eyes wander around the facility hallway. "I wasn't informed that Eden would be sending someone to check-in on us."

"That's part of what makes surprise check-ins so effective," the young sergeant coolly answered, those icy blue eyes lowering to land on the doctor. "Now earlier I believe you said that the lower levels are where you perform most of your experiments. Will we be going down there after this?"

The doctor smiled politely at his guest, his interest in the situation rising more and more by the second. "You may have a letter of authorization from Commander Nabaat to evaluate the facility, but permissions to the lower level are only granted to those who have CDC level clearance. My apologies, Sergeant."

Although the doctor could sense a bit of annoyance coming from the woman, she didn't seem to be that much deterred by the statement. "Alright," she breathed, looking around the hall again, taking everything in. "Then maybe you can answer a question for me. I visited the Apollo living camp not too long ago and some of the residents showed concern about their family members. They said some of them had fallen sick and they were taken here for treatment? But not once have you mentioned anything about a medical facility, medical activities, or Gran Pulsians."

The doctor's eyes narrowed on the sergeant. This visit was getting very interesting, indeed.

"Hmph. GRAN Pulsians?" the head of security scoffed, instantly earning him the attention of both the doctor and the sergeant. "Figures that's what you'd ask about. Don't think we forgot for a second how sweet you are on 'em. Everyone here knows about your past, missy. Everyone."

"Then everyone here," the sergeant replied in a hard, even tone, "should know about the oath I swore to protect Cocoon and all its citizens when I joined the Guardian Corps at seventeen. They should know about the fal'Cie I slayed before he could carry out his mission to destroy Cocoon, and they should know about the number of rescue missions I've completed that have brought home Cocoonian soldiers who were out risking their lives fighting on _Gran_ Pulse while you sit behind a desk watching camera screens all day." The sergeant's stony facial expression never faltered as she spoke to the now taken aback security head. "Have we discussed enough of my past already, or should I keep going?"

"I…" was the only word that the security head could mumble out before the building suddenly quivered beneath their feet.

The doctor stumbled back a step in surprise while the sergeant and security head looked to each other curiously.

"What was that?" the sergeant asked. Her pink eyebrows slightly ruffled as she looked from the doctor to the security head.

"I-I'm not sure," the doctor answered. "We've never gotten earthquakes here before, but there have been some strange migration patterns from the flan in the area lately. Maybe one of the larger ones is beating against the—ahhh!"

All three officials instinctively crouched when the building shook even more violently than it had earlier, almost causing the three to totally lose their footing.

"RAAWWWRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

A loud, screeching roar pierced the air, and the doctor's blood immediately turned to ice.

That wasn't a giant flan. It just couldn't be.

The building violently trembled for a third time, but this time the shaking was accompanied by a loud chorus of splintering glass, crashing objects, and human screams… all coming from the floor above them. It was as if there was a demolition derby going on upstairs. From all around them in the hall, doors were now flying open and people in suits and white coats were running and screaming as they pushed and shoved their way to the exits.

The three officials didn't move from their spots, however. Maybe from a sense of shock or maybe from a sense of duty, the three remained still and allowed the others to rush past them until they were the only ones left in the hall.

Sergeant Farron's eyes were glued to the ceiling. There were no more deathly screams or shattering sounds, but there was a rhythmic pounding that moved across the floor. With each timely rumble, the ceiling would shake and sometimes create a small crack. Something was up there. Something big. She instinctively reached down to her hip to the hanging case where she kept her trusted weapon, her gunblade. "You," she said in a low voice, turning to face the security head when the rumbling above them had momentarily ceased. "How many men do you have in the building with you?"

"Maybe about twenty?"

"Well, find them and make sure that the top floors are totally evacuated. If you have a safety bunker, rally everyone who hasn't rushed too far outside into it. Then, I need your best shooters to come with me up—"

"Sweet Etro…"

Sergeant Farron slightly tilted her head in confusion as she stared at the security head. His face had gone totally white and his eyes were nearly bulging out of his skull as he looked past her head towards the other end of the hall.

A tingling feeling crept up Sergeant Farron's spine as she slowly turned around to get a glimpse at what the security head was staring at. What she saw made her own breath hitch in surprise.

A large, black dragon was hovering on the other side of the large window that composed the research facility's back wall. Perched on top of the dragon, leaning forward against its head and staring into the window at the three officials was a young woman with tanned skin, a messy rag of dark hair on her head, and intense green eyes. It was the most wanted woman in all of Cocoon history.

The Gran Pulsian warrior, Oerba Yun Fang.

"It's her…" the security head barely pushed out in a whisper.

Sergeant Farron and the dangerous fugitive locked eyes. A tight, challenging smile slightly spread across the Gran Pulsian's face and a smug gleam sparked in those vibrant green eyes.

That's when the sergeant's spine stiffened in realization.

"Run," she croaked, still staring at the dragon rider outside of the window, but no one moved. They were all still too frozen in shock. Even Sergeant Farron had trouble feeling all of her limbs.

The smile on Oerba Yun Fang's face widened and a hand reached down to pat the side of the dragon's neck. In return, the dragon bared its teeth and slightly cocked back its head.

"RUN!"

A burst of energy flooded Sergeant Farron's system as all of her senses suddenly snapped back on. She immediately spun on her heel and yanked at Dr. Osborne's coat with one hand while pushing the security head forward with the other. Behind her, there was another roar and the shriek of breaking glass.

Sergeant Farron threw the doctor ahead of her into the first door to their immediate left in the hallway before diving into the doorway herself. A hot gust of wind scorched her legs and backside as she slid across the floor of the room. When she came to a stop, she rolled over and sat up to look back into the hall through the open door. The hallway was now glowing a warm orange color, and small bits of burning material clung to the walls and floated from the ceiling.

"Holy hell, that was close," the security head breathed from his spot on the floor beside her.

Sergeant Farron grunted in return and planted a hand on the floor to lift herself, but halted when a sharp pain shot up her arm.

"Ahhh," the sergeant hissed, pulling her hand back to momentarily cradle it. She must've had an awkward landing on her wrist when she had dove into the room.

The building rumbled and shook once again.

"We need to call Eden," the security head was now chattering, his eyes on the ceiling. "My men aren't equipped to handle this. And how in the hell did she get a dragon?! Taking that thing down alone will—hey! Hey, where are you going?!"

The security head jumped up, leaving the dazed doctor alone in the room to follow Sergeant Farron out the door and into the on-fire hallway.

The sergeant didn't answer or break stride as she deliberately strode to the end of the hall and poked her head out of the shattered glass window.

The building continued to shake.

"What are you—holy shit!" The security head peeked his head out of the window and looked up just as the sergeant was doing and immediately caught sight of the huge dragon climbing up the side of the research facility and methodically clawing out and smashing all of the windows.

"She's not on it," Sergeant Farron stated in such a level tone that it somewhat disturbed the man.

"What?" The security head just noticed that there was no one clinging to the back of the beast that was still savagely ripping apart the building that he was getting paid to protect. "Where could—"

"There." The sergeant pointed off into the near distance where the security head could barely make out something disappearing into the bushes of the heavily forested Sunleth area. "Let's go."

"WHAT?!" The security head stared wide-eyed at Sergeant Farron as she hopped through the space that had once been a glass wall and landed on a beam that was jutting out from the building's side. "Are you out of your ever-loving mind?! I'm not following that thing into a jungle!"

"Fine. Then I'll do it myself."

"Wait—"

But it was too late. Sergeant Farron had jumped off the beam and landed on a staticky cushion on the ground, from an anti-grav unit no doubt. The security head could only anxiously watch as the young woman sprinted off in the direction where they had seen the movement in the bushes.

On the ground, Sergeant Farron was fueled by pure adrenaline as she rushed through the Sunleth jungle. Stray limbs and branches reached out and scratched at her face and legs as she ran, but she didn't care.

She was going to catch up.

She was going to settle this.

"Whaaah!" Not paying close enough attention to the landscape, the sergeant lost her footing as the ground began to slope downwards beneath her feet. Her heels dug into the moist dirt and her back fell against the ground as she uncontrollably slid down the wet hill and landed in a dark thicket at the bottom of the incline. Careful not to put too much pressure on her wrist as she moved, the sergeant crawled forward, under the low hanging branch here, through the gap in the bushes there, around the snarling roots everywhere… She slowly got to her feet when she had finally pushed her way through a break in the dense brush.

The clearing was small and surrounded by thick vegetation on nearly all sides, making it almost impossible to find. The only part of the area that wasn't blocked by the heavy brush was the part directly ahead of where Sergeant Farron stood, where a huge, vine-covered stone jutted up from the ground.

The sergeant reached down to her hip to snatch her gunblade from its case and point it forward.

Standing between her and the huge stone, clearly studying the structure with her back facing the sergeant, was Oerba Yun Fang. One of the woman's hands was planted against her hip while the other dangled loosely at her side, a data disk case held between her fingers.

"Dismounting that dragon was a stupid idea," Sergeant Farron said in low voice, steadily keeping her gunblade pointed right between the other woman's shoulder blades.

Oerba Yun Fang didn't startle. Her body didn't show any sign of surprise or recognition on hearing the sergeant's voice at all. There wasn't even an attempt to reach back and grab the pronged, red spear that was strapped to the back of the blue, flowy garment that was wrapped around her body. "Maybe I just wanted to get ya alone. I had a feeling you'd follow me."

The woman turned around to face the sergeant.

"Don't move," Sergeant Farron warned, cocking her gunblade.

Oerba Yun Fang slightly smiled and lifted her hands in a disarming way, the data disk still held in between her fingers.

"What is that?" Sergeant Farron asked, nodding her head at the disk. "What'd you take from the facility?"

The Gran Pulsian didn't answer, but instead let her eyes wander to examine the dense bushes behind the sergeant. Sergeant Farron knew exactly what she was doing. She was trying to assess how many people had followed her, how many people she would have to take.

"You didn't bring back-up," Oerba Yun Fang observed aloud, an eyebrow slightly quirking as she spoke. "Yet ya called my idea stupid." She took a step forward.

"Make another move and I swear to Etro, I will—"

"What?" Fang cut off, her expression suddenly hardening as those green eyes bore down on the sergeant. "Shoot me? Put me down? Be the Savior of Cocoon again by slaying the wretched beast?"

Sergeant Farron's stomach curled as she glared at the woman across from her. She didn't like the way that Fang was looking at her. She wasn't looking at her with the soft, friendly face that the sergeant had once grown to love. It didn't have that lightheartedness from always having a joke in the back of her mind or that subtle hint of affection that had always been evident when they were near each other. This face was colder, more detached. It resembled the glowering, animalistic stares that had been plastered over so many wanted posters and damning magazine covers across Cocoon, and not the concerned face that had hovered so closely over the sergeant's in bed one night nearly five years ago, assuring her that everything would be okay.

"Then go ahead, hero," Fang continued. "Shoot me. I dare ya."

Sergeant Farron kept her gaze locked on Fang's face as her finger slightly pushed against the gunblade's trigger, giving it only the smallest bit of pressure. She could feel her face contorting into a pained grimace. She shouldn't have followed Fang into the jungle. She shouldn't have done a lot of things. This is not what she wanted.

"See, I don't think you can," Fang said with a bit of bite. "I think that guilty conscience of yours is finally starting to weigh down on ya. Or maybe…" Fang's eyes narrowed curiously on the sergeant, "…just maybe, even after everything that's happened... part of you still can't let go of the past. Is that it? Is that problem, _Lightbug_?"

Sergeant Farron felt her grimace deepening at the callous use of one of her old pet names.

"Either way, that's how I knew this would be so much easier if I got you alone."

For the first time since the beginning of their conversation, Sergeant Farron's eyes left Fang's face and flitted over to Fang's free hand, which was pointed directly at the sergeant and glowing white with a burning ruin spell.

"Ya should've taken the shot."

A large whooshing sound filled Sergeant Farron's ears and her vision immediately went white.

**A/N: **Hey, guys. How y'all doin?

So yep. This is basically the sequel to Enemies of Cocoon (although if you didn't read/have no interest in ever trying to read that, it's cool. I'll try to add enough background in this story to fill everybody in). And I know I kinda kicked things off at a weird spot, but things'll rewind to a more stable point next chapter. As always, hope y'all enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

**Earlier that year…**

A loud ring cut through the silence in the dark bedroom.

"Mmmm?" A disgruntled groan rumbled from the young woman splayed out on the bed that took up nearly half the floor space in the snug room.

Another loud ring.

The woman opened her eyes. The room was pitch black except for the luminous glow of the beeping device that vibrated on top of her nightstand. When the third ring sounded, the woman tiredly reached out to snatch the device and bring it to her ear.

"Sergeant Lightning Farron," she mumbled into the mouthpiece.

"Farron, I need—wait. Farron, were you… sleeping?" Lieutenant Amodar's familiar voice boomed through the receiver.

"I'm preparing for my morning flight to Eden tomorrow, sir," Lightning groggily replied. "I thought I had signed out early—"

"No need to explain yourself," Amodar quickly interrupted. "You're one of the best officers I've got and I didn't check to see who was on duty or not. I just figured you were, although it is comforting to know you actually do sleep like the rest of us hehe…"

"Sir, is there a problem?"

"Nothing major. Just got a noise complaint from around your old neighborhood. Candy Court, was it? Sounds like nothing more than a bunch of kids getting rowdy, but you know how ornery old, rich folk can be. I'm sending one of the rooks over there to quiet things down, but I was hoping you'd accompany him. Show him the ropes and all."

"You want me to show some new guy the ropes?" Lightning asked disbelievingly.

"I know it's not your usual shtick, but think of this as a test. Samuels is moving to Nautilus soon, so a new position will be opening up. If you can prove you're capable of training new recruits, you'd be the definite front-runner for promotion. And don't act like you don't want it. Isn't your sister planning a wedding or something?"

Lightning wasn't exactly excited over the prospect of working with a bunch of clumsy, new rooks, but Amodar was right. There were new expenses popping up in her life that she could use some extra gil for.

"Alright…" she breathed, finally sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her bed. "Where should I meet the newbie?"

* * *

The ride to Candy Court was a long and quiet one. Lightning hadn't bothered putting too much effort into getting ready before meeting the rookie. She simply threw on some pants and a jacket, tacked on her Guardian Corps badge, and picked her gunblade case up on her way out the door. She now silently stared out the passenger seat window of one of the GC cruisers, occasionally lifting a hand to smooth down parts of her disheveled pink hair. She could feel the rookie's eyes frequently leaving the road to quickly study her before moving back to the pavement. At first she thought it might've been because of her messy appearance, but with each passing glance, she began to realize what the real reason was.

She should've known from the jump. It was always the same reason.

"Spit it out," she bluntly stated, still staring out the window.

"Huh?" The rookie sounded as if he had accidentally swallowed his tongue.

"Whatever you've got to say." Lightning turned so that her icy blue eyes were now digging into the rookie. "Spit it out and make this trip a lot less awkward for the both of us."

"Oh. Uh…" The rookie quickly glanced over at Lightning once more and then sheepishly smiled. "You're her, aren't you? Lightning Farron. As in THE Lightning Farron? Savior of Cocoon?"

And there it was.

Lightning sighed and massaged her temples with her fingertips. It had been a little over four years. Four years since she went on a high school field trip to the Vestige and had an untimely encounter with a Pulse fal'Cie. Four years since she and four of her classmates had consequently been turned into l'Cie. Four years since the group of them had marched into Eden, hoping to take down the corrupt Sanctum but instead having a showdown with Primarch Dysley, who turned out to be a fal'Cie himself. And four long years since she helplessly watched her closest friend turn into a monster, who would not only kill the fal'Cie, but who would also savagely tear a huge crater into the side of Cocoon's shell before disappearing without a trace. At the time, Lightning and her l'Cie comrades had been working with a renegade group of Sanctum officials and military men called the Cavalry. The Cavalry had been planning on overthrowing the Sanctum as well, but when their plan fell through, they needed a cover-up that wouldn't expose them as traitors. Thus, they spun a story around Lightning and the two other Cocoonian l'Cie being Saviors of the planet, which instantly jetted the ex-l'Cie into popularity. The cover-up didn't come without casualties, however. Lightning would know that better than anyone. Her father, who had been given a life sentence for treason, was one of them.

"Just pull over here." Lightning tapped on the window and the cruiser slowed to a stop in front of one of the mansions that circled the Candy Court cul-de-sac. It was almost surreal being back in the old neighborhood. Her room in her old house was bigger than some of the spaces she had rented when she and her younger sister, Serah, had first started living on their own. As she looked over the large homes, she quickly identified Hope and Snow's old houses.

"So it's true?" The rookie excitedly asked, copying Lightning's movements and hurriedly exiting the cruiser. "You really are her?"

"Is this going to get in the way of us doing our job?" Lightning tiredly asked, giving the rookie an impatient glare from over the top of the cruiser. "Because if it is, you can just sit in the car and let me handle this myself."

"N-no!" The rookie vigorously shook his head, still staring at Lightning through awestruck eyes. "I, uh, I just want you to know that it's an honor working with you, ma'am. A real big—"

"Quiet." Lightning held up a finger and looked around. She could hear the yapping of laughter and loud banter from somewhere nearby. She slowly turned her head and stilled, now precisely sure of where the noise was coming from… the other side of her old house. "Over there," she whispered and pointed to the large, dark structure. At one point and time, the home had been littered with bullet holes, smashed windows, and splintered doors from a PSICOM raid that had taken place when she was still a l'Cie. It was such an eyesore that the other wealthy families in the neighborhood had pitched in to get the place remodeled, but because of its history, they could never convince anyone to buy it. That was evident from the huge "FOR SALE" sign that was still picketed on the home's front lawn. The house had pretty much been regarded in the same way that the 'beloved' Saviors of Cocoon had: with honor and public admiration for enduring the l'Cie curse while quietly being pitied and outcast for being tainted by a fal'Cie in the first place; something to be admired from a distance but not acceptable to actually come home to.

"Okay," Lightning began in a low voice as the rookie joined her from around the car. "You don't want to spook them. So the best way to—"

"Don't worry."

Lightning's brows ruffled in an aggravated manner when the more inexperienced officer cut her off.

"I've got this." The rookie didn't wait for any further instructions before gripping his taser and jogging forward around the huge house. "ALRIGHT EVERYBODY! FREEZ—Hey! Wait! No! Don't run! C-come back!"

Lightning rolled her eyes and grumbled something beneath her breath before proceeding forward in the same path the rookie had taken. When she rounded the corner of the house, she caught sight of him dejectedly staring off into the distance, probably the direction where the targets had run off in. A number of various spray paint cans rolled around the ground by a fallen ladder at the rookie's feet. He mindlessly kicked one as he continued to stew over his lost bust. "I thought that maybe the taser would make them listen," he admitted, finally turning to Lightning.

Lightning didn't answer but continued to walk forward, looking around to carefully study the area. With the new renovations, the heavy-duty fence that had once lined her estate had been torn down. She remembered how the huge fence had once been the deciding factor for the other l'Cie to come over to practice using their powers for the first time. Without it, the home was now exposed for all kinds of punks and weirdoes to thrill seek by visiting the house where the first televised l'Cie sighting had been reported.

Lightning stooped down to pick up one of the empty spray paint cans. She tapped the nozzle with the tip of her finger. It was still wet. Sighing, she turned her head to face the side of the house, curious as to what the damage was. She expected to see some sort of unoriginal line roughly scribbled across the brick, like 'DIE L'CIE SCUM' or 'BRETT WAS HERE', but that wasn't the case at all.

Her spine stiffened and her jaw tightly clenched as her eyes ran over the huge painting that now covered the side of her old abode. She could hear the rookie stepping beside her, but she just couldn't pull her eyes away from the wall.

"I guess that's what they were painting, huh?" he thought aloud. "It's actually pretty good. That's her, isn't it? Ragnarok? Before she grew and fully turned blue and everything?"

"Fang," Lightning said softly, barely over a whisper. "She wasn't just Ragnarok. She was a person with a name. Fang."

The rookie was right in that the mural had been painted with a good enough amount of skill, but at the same time, it looked as if Fang had been drawn like a character from a fourteen year old boy's comic book fantasy. Her clothes were torn down the middle so that only half of her tattered garments clung to her extremely toned body, exposing half of a black bra that could barely contain huge, balloon-like breasts and the top of what looked to be a g-string bottom. A long, blue tail curled from behind her and a bright red l'Cie brand glowed on one of her upper arms. On her opposite arm, her tribal tattoo twisted down until it had transformed her hand into a monstrous, clawed paw. A mane of dark, wild hair with glowing orange tips framed her face, a face that intensely stared forward with piercing green eyes that nearly glowed in the dark. Sprayed in cursive above her head was the unoriginal phrase she had originally been looking for. "Embrace Your Inner Beast."

A hard knot formed in Lightning's throat as she continued to stare at the mural… those haunting green eyes in particular. Lightning thought that she had finally been given a break when Fang's face had originally stopped flooding all of the mainstream media outlets, but she had been greatly mistaken. Before Fang had transformed into Ragnarok, the Cavalry had successfully completed a large-scale Pulsian evacuation from Cocoon. Once the initial commotion of the Ragnarok attack had died down, the Sanctum wasted no time in corralling many of the planet's remaining Pulsians into specialized living camps that made the reservations that they had formerly been living on look like vacation resorts. Reports soon started to leak, due to the Cavalry no doubt, detailing the horrible treatment that the Pulsians had to endure, before and after the camps. This caused a huge uproar from a bunch of pro-Gran Pulsian groups and once again, Fang's face started popping up everywhere. Soon, Fang had gathered a small cult following. It didn't matter whether the people agreed that the Pulsians had been treated like crap or not. Anyone who considered themselves any type of 'rebel' or anyone who held any type of disagreement with how the Sanctum ran things, whether it was how the educational system was handled or whether they were pissed off about getting a parking ticket, could make up a reason for throwing some sort of support towards Fang. It didn't help that there had also been recent stories in the news regarding mysterious attacks to Cocoon camps on Gran Pulse that were being led by a warrior called Ragnarok.

Lightning cringed at the thought. People could romanticize Fang's transformation all they wanted, but none of them were there. None of them had ever talked to Fang. None of them witnessed how she had struggled each day trying to keep the monster within her at bay. None of them saw the mental, emotional, or physical changes that Fang had endured during their l'Cie sentence. If they had, they would never entertain the idea that Fang would willingly choose to run around calling herself by the thing's name.

"So is that true too?"

"Hm?" Lightning had been so engrossed by the mural that she hadn't even noticed the rookie had started talking again.

"The rumors," the rookie continued. "About the two of you. That you two were, uh… you know. Involved?"

Lightning just grunted and took a step closer to the mural. In the bottom corner, a strange marking had been painted in white spray paint. It was a small circle with a large "N" messily sprayed on top of it. Lightning's face heated and her jaw tightened even more. It was a symbol, and she knew exactly what it stood for. "Rook." She turned to face the rookie again. "How would you like your first bust to be a big one?"

* * *

"Where is he?" Lightning immediately asked as she burst in through the doors of _Cactuar Ugly_, a taco hut turned bar located downtown, right near Bodhum's shore.

"Light!" Lebreau, the bartender and owner, gasped in surprise. "Heyyy. You haven't been by in awhile. How've you—"

"Is he here?" Lightning continued to press, garnering a myriad of surprised and confused stares from the bar's patrons.

"Lightning, can you just calm down for one sec—"

"So he is here," Lightning confirmed aloud to herself, ignoring the pleading expression on Lebreau's face. "Rook, follow me." Lightning pushed her way through the bar, with the rookie officer timidly following behind her, and slammed her hands against a door in the back that swung open to reveal a set of stairs leading down to the basement level.

At the foot of the stairs, Lightning flung open another door to reveal a small room where a group of young men were hunched over a table. All of their heads popped up on hearing the back of the door slam against the wall from Lightning's entrance, and Lightning's vision instantly zeroed in on the tall, muscular blonde who stood in the middle of the pack.

"Uh…" the man spoke uneasily as Lightning began striding towards him and all of the guys previously surrounding him moved out of the way. "What's up, sis? UGH!"

The man huffed out a huge gasp of air as his back slammed against the wall. Lightning leaned forward, her teeth bared as her forearm pressed against the man's chest. "If you're going to send people to deface someone else's property, you should at least be smart enough to not have them paint your group sigil at the bottom of it."

"Wha— UGH!" The man tried to speak but couldn't get anything out before his back was slammed against the wall again.

"And I'm NOT your sister."

"Hey!" The rookie who had up until now been gaping at the interaction in surprise loosened up as he recognized the man's face. "You're Snow Villiers! Whoa… two saviors in one day… Is Hope Estheim hanging around here too?"

Lightning rolled her eyes and Snow took a moment to calmly peel Lightning's arm from his chest. "It sounds as if," Snow began matter-of-factly, "you're accusing me of vandalism. But isn't the law 'innocent until proven guilty'? I have at least four alibis who'll vouch for my location and you don't have any proof that I had something to do with it."

"So you had nothing to do with the graffiti mural of Rag—I mean, uh, Fang in Candy Court?" the rookie asked.

"Nope. Can't say I did," Snow answered with a tight, arrogant smile. "But out of curiosity, this graffiti mural you're talking about… how did it turn out?"

"Kinda good, actually," the rookie admitted. "Pretty hot."

"Awesom—"

"Of all the things that you could've had your lackeys paint and of all the things you could've had them paint on," Lightning interjected in a low, gritty voice, "You had to paint _her_… on _my_ house?"

"I think it's kinda poetic," Snow shrugged. "And you left the neighborhood right after reckoning day four years ago. You didn't see the stages of the old Farron household like I did. Trust me. This is probably making the place look much better."

"Yeah. Painting a tailed, half-naked terrorist on the wall will do that sometimes," Lightning returned icily.

"Terrorist? See. That's the problem. It wasn't Fang's fault, and if this Cocoon versus Gran Pulse war is really happening, the least we can do is try to clear Fang and Vanille's images. Get 'em some support."

Lightning impatiently shook her head, but Snow still continued.

"You may not believe it, but I know she's still alive down there. I can feel—"

A loud crack sounded through the room as Lightning's fist collided with the side of Snow's jaw.

"Yo, Farron!" Gadot, the brawniest member of Snow's posse, jumped forward defensively, but stilled when Snow lifted up a hand, signaling him to halt.

"No, it's okay," Snow groaned, flexing his jaw while Lightning continued to glare him down. "Uh, would you guys mind giving us a minute alone?"

Gadot's eyes flitted unsurely from Lightning to Snow before his shoulders relaxed and he nodded his head towards the door, signaling for everyone to follow him out.

"Uh… Sergeant Farron?" the rookie nervously asked.

Lightning sighed. "Yes, you can leave too."

"Actually," the rookie apprehensively continued, "I was wondering if I could get a picture with the two of you. My mom would never believe me if I told her—"

Lightning turned to give the rookie a burning, stone-face glare.

"Know what?" the rookie squeaked. "Who needs a mother's approval anyway? I'm just going to close this on my way out…"

Lightning kept her glare glued to the rookie until he disappeared behind the closed door.

"Sooo…" Snow slowly dragged out, "Something you need to get off your chest?"

Lightning's eyes rolled away from the closed door to dangerously land on Snow instead. "Seriously, Snow, could you be any more careless, stupid, or insensitive?!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to do something important here," Snow defended. "I wish I could say the same for you, Miss Queen of the Graffiti Police."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Lightning retorted, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I didn't mean to mistake your giant picture of an H-cupped, g-string-wearing Fangnarok as vandalism. Oops! My fucking bad!"

"It's about putting out a likeable image! We need more people to wanna like the Gran Pulsians to get them to oppose this war. I've even talked to Cid about this and he agrees."

"Of course. Because Cid knows everything," Lightning snorted. "That's why he was able to be primarch for TWO WHOLE WEEKS."

"He has a lot of good ideas! You'd know this if you ever checked in on the Cavalry once in awhile instead of slaving for 'the man'. You never complain when Team NORA is out slaying monsters—"

"I do."

"—but heavens forbid someone paints a harmless picture on the wall of a vacant house."

"Harmless?" Lightning looked at Snow incredulously. "Don't try to play that 'holier than thou' crap with me and pretend as if you and your renegade crew have never hurt anybody!"

Snow's face dropped. Lightning had found the one thing that he couldn't give her an argument for. "How many times do I have to apologize for that?" he asked in a soft voice.

"I don't know," Lightning replied coldly. "Ask Hope."

A tense silence filled the room, one so uncomfortable that even Lightning couldn't stand it. "Look…" she sighed, running a hand over her face, "It's just… it's already been hard enough as it is. I'm getting tired and the last thing I need now are calls dragging me out of bed to go see giant murals of her."

Snow just nodded.

"Good," Lightning breathed, more to herself than to Snow. She turned and headed for the door but stopped herself when she grabbed the handle. "And Snow? If you stop by Serah's… remind her that I'll be picking her up tomorrow around the usual time."

"Oh. About that…"

Lightning's brows creased suspiciously as she looked over her shoulder at Snow. "What?"

"Serah's notttt exxxxactly going tomorrow."

"Not going?" Lightning couldn't even try to contain the shock on her face. "Why not? We only get once a month."

"I dunno," Snow shrugged. "Getting tired, I guess. Just like you said."

Lightning just stared at Snow with a dumbfounded expression. Serah had never missed one of their monthly visits to see their father in Eden.

"But since you'll be up in Eden," Snow continued, pulling Lightning back into conversation. "If you run into Hope while you're up there… Can you, uh, tell him I said hey?"

"Sure," Lightning murmured, still trying to wrap her head around Serah's actions as she turned back to head out the door. "But don't think this means I'll start doing you any favors. If I so much as even catch you jaywalking after tonight, you're spending a day in a cell."

She could hear Snow lightly groaning in reply as she ascended the stairs. Back on the main level, Lightning would find her rookie sitting at the bar, drinking a complimentary cocktail from Lebreau.

"Yeah, before she dropped out, we were like besties," Lebreau was going on as she leaned over the bar countertop. The girl had always been one to experiment with alcohol back in school, so it was no surprise that she had bought the taco hut and turned it into a full-fledged bar after winning a sizeable lump sum from an insanely lucky bet at the chocobo races. "Once, we had a sleepover at her apartment, and she even let me pierce her bellybutton."

"Do you mean I once asked you to watch Serah for me while I worked a late shift and when I came home, Serah pinned me down while you savagely stabbed me?" Lightning asked as she approached the bar.

"I guess we all remember it our different ways," Lebreau replied with a sweet smile.

"C'mon, rook," Lightning said with the nod of her head. "It's been a long night and I have to wake up early tomorrow."

* * *

As per usual, the halls of Sanctum headquarters in Eden were bustling with activity as Lightning made her way towards the maximum detainment prison block.

"Sergeant Farron!"

From further down the hall, Lightning spotted Commander Jihl Nabaat walking amongst a few other men and women in uniforms. Jihl was a striking woman with long blonde hair, round thin-framed glasses, and an impressive collection of high-heeled shoes. She and Lightning had gotten to know each other quite well after all of the chaotic events that had taken place on this very estate four years ago. Jihl had been studying l'Cie behavior and often went to Lightning for help with answering certain questions. They grew to know each other even better when Lightning realized that Jihl liked to talk just as much shit about her at-the-time arch nemesis, Commander Cid Raines, behind his back as she did.

"I'm glad I caught you, Sergeant," Jihl greeted when she had gotten closer. "You know I'm terribly sorry about this, but your father has been placed under total lockdown. You can't see him today."

"What?" Lightning's usually stoic expression instantly turned into one of incredulity.

Jihl glanced hesitantly over to the group of men and women who stood beside her. "Can we finish this later? I have some important business to attend to," she told them in a low voice, watching them disappointedly nod and disperse before turning back to Lightning. "Come. Take a walk with me to my office."

Lightning released a disappointed sigh of her own and nodded before quickly falling into step next to Jihl.

"As you know," Jihl began in a low voice, leaning close to Light's ear, "We've been sending a number of reconnaissance teams to Pulse lately. Yesterday, we lost contact with the third one this month. We think it may have something to do with the hostile group led by the one they call Ragnarok."

"The 'mysterious warrior' from the tabloids?" Lightning asked flatly.

"Believe it or not, all of it isn't fiction. I swear, we must have a mole somewhere in our division."

Lightning's eyes darted to the side, where Cid Raines had just rounded a corner and entered the main hall. When his eyes connected with Lightning's, he just smiled and gave her a congenial nod.

"It's not too far-fetched an idea," Lightning replied in a low voice, eyeing Cid until she and Jihl had walked past. "Have you contacted anyone in the area to investigate it?"

"We have. General Piquely." A look of disgust quickly passed over Jihl's face. "He's supposed to be our main point of contact down there but lately he hasn't been feeling motivated enough to be bothered with the war. Or securing his job." Jihl stopped when they reached the door to her office. She tilted her head and gave Lightning a tight-lipped smile before continuing in an overly dramatic whimsical tone, "He's met a girl."

"He's met a girl?" Lightning echoed, causing Jihl to smile wider. "As in an officer or a Pulsian?"

Jihl gave her a telling look.

"So not only is he making the natives aware of Cocoon presence," Lightning went on as Jihl opened the door for her to enter, "But he's also fantasizing about a girl who probably prays at night for Cocoon to implode."

"Nooo, it's not like that. He says it's true love and that she doesn't care where he's from," Jihl replied in a mockingly sweet tone. "She supposedly nursed him back to health from a horrible case of exotic food poisoning, so now she's his 'little green eyed beauty'."

Lightning slightly grinned at Jihl's mockery of the situation, but the grin slowly withered away as she approached the commander's desk. Sitting on top of a neat stack of files was a large headshot of Fang. She remembered that photo. It was Fang's yearbook picture. The picture never got published in the book itself, for obvious reasons, but the yearbook editor that year, Alyssa Zaidelle, had been nice enough to offer Lightning a copy.

"But I hear Pulse is the place to go if you're looking for one of those."

"Huh?" Lightning quickly looked up to see Jihl staring at her with an uplifted eyebrow. "I wasn't—it's just—last night, there was this huge graffiti mural and—I mean… ugh." Lightning took a deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. "This Ragnarok character… You don't think it could be Fang, do you?"

Jihl amusedly studied the flustered Lightning for a moment more before bluntly answering, "No." She took a few strides into the room so that she was now standing behind her desk. "There is no concrete evidence to support the idea that she survived her fall from Cocoon."

Lightning felt that all too familiar ache in her chest as she watched Jihl take Fang's picture and stuff it out of sight under her files.

"However, we do know that Oerba Dia Vanille escaped to Pulse safely. We have reason to believe that she may be leading those groups under the alias of Ragnarok. It could be a symbolic way of her trying to finish what her friend started."

"No." Lightning shook her head. "Vanille wouldn't do that. She and Fang were too close. She'd never call herself the thing that ruined—"

Once again, Jihl was staring at Lightning with that somewhat amused raised eyebrow.

"—never mind… But what does this have to do with my father?"

"As you know, he was imprisoned for treason. More specifically for attacking a group of PSICOM soldiers and leading Fang and Vanille away right after Vanille murdered an officer. So after recent events, we thought it would be wise to isolate him until he's gone through more questioning."

"Because he's so 'in the know' on events on Pulse from his prison cell?" Lightning asked. "That's ridiculous! Just like the treason charge in the first place! He couldn't stand Vanille or Fang. I highly doubt he was there to help them."

"Well, we have two eye witnesses saying he did," Jihl calmly replied. "Unless he's told you something different."

"No…" Lightning relented, shaking her head. She had questioned her father incessantly about what it was he had been doing with Fang and Vanille that day, hoping to find anything that could reduce his sentence, but the man would always silently look away and wait for the topic to change. "He won't tell me anything."

Jihl just nodded, watching Lightning with a sympathetic look in her eye. "You know, since you're already up here, we recently picked up readings on a new signal that we believe could be an SOS from one of our missing troops. According to the terrain maps, it would be too long and dangerous of a journey for any of our currently posted groups to travel to, so we're gathering a small squad to quickly drop off, investigate, and pick up. You should consider joining."

Now it was Lightning's turn to stare at Jihl with a peculiar expression. "You know I don't want any part in this war."

"It's a rescue mission, nothing more than that. You're wasting your talents in Bodhum with the Guardian Corps," Jihl pressed. "I mean, seriously. Graffiti murals? You're much more capable than that and you have better smarts and combat skills than most of the soldiers already down there. And you can't tell me you don't need the extra money. Isn't your sister planning a wedding?"

Lightning softly grunted in return. Everyone seemed determined to use Serah's wedding against her.

"By the way, where is Serah?" Jihl asked. "Don't the two of you usually come on these visits together?"

"Just sign me up," Lightning mumbled, not wanting to get into the topic of Serah right now. "I could use the break from my usual beat anyway."

"Perfect." Jihl smiled. "I'll send your file to General Piquely right away. I'm actually going out for lunch with some of the other heads in a few minutes. You're perfectly welcome to join, if you'd like."

"I'm fine," Lightning passed. "I was planning on making a trip to The Academy before it got too late. Might as well do that now."

* * *

The strong smell of dirty socks, armpit odor, aftershave, and possibly ball sack burned Lightning's nostrils as she walked through the hall on one of the boys' floors in the Epsilon dorm at The Academy. She stopped in front of room 422 and made a silent prayer that the inside of this room would smell at least a little bit more pleasant than the hall as she knocked on the door.

"Coming!" a muffled cry called from inside the room. Lightning crossed her arms to wait and curiously listened to the weird shuffling and clanging sounds coming from the other side of the door. She wouldn't have to listen long though. Within a matter of seconds, the door swung open to reveal a lanky, teenage boy with sea green eyes and a messy mop of silver hair on his head.

"Lightning!" The young man's face lit up and he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around the sergeant before quickly pulling back with an embarrassed look on his face. "I mean, um… Sorry. Just… it's been a while. Do you, uh, wanna come in?"

"Sure, Hope." Lightning politely smiled and stepped into the small room.

"You can sit on the bed," Hope offered as he closed the door behind them.

Lightning arched an eyebrow as she looked down at the unmade bed on Hope's side of the room that was partly covered in dirty clothes.

"Or you can just stand up," Hope added as soon as he noticed his mistake. "I wasn't really expecting company."

"It's fine. I should've called," Lightning excused, her eyes still roaming around the messy room. "Snow says hi."

Hope's eyes silently drifted to the floor and Lightning immediately realized that she probably should've started the conversation in a different way.

"And, um… Maqui might have asked about you, too. How've you been?"

"Good." Hope replied with a mindless shrug. "Just busy with school and some extra projects. If I don't get approved for vacation housing, I might be coming home next break. So there's that."

Lightning just made an interested humming sound as her eyes landed on a tall and nearly equally wide structure near the back of the small room that had been covered with a white sheet. "Is that one of your projects for school?" She took a curious step towards the sheeted object but froze in her tracks when Hope quickly darted in front of her.

"Nah, just something I've been working on. Nothing important," he blurted, nervously rocking back and forth on his heels as he talked. "What, uh, what about you? Must've been a long day, huh?"

Lightning looked at Hope with a slightly lowered brow and an undoubtedly questioning expression on her face.

"You, uh, you look kinda irked." Hope's cheeks reddened a bit as he explained. "Sometimes you get real stiff and hike your shoulders when you're stressed."

"Oh." Lightning had forgotten just how well Hope could read her body language. The boy had always looked up to her, but after the whole l'Cie ordeal, his usual quiet admiration had shifted into more of a puppy dog following. Before Lightning dropped out to start her career in the Guardian Corps, Hope would constantly stay on her heels at school, clinging to her. The only times she could ever find refuge from the boy was when she went to the girls' room. But even though it sometimes got annoying, she never tried to get rid of him. She knew how hard it was for Hope to fit in. Even before they had become l'Cie, Hope had always been the odd man out. The kid was a certified genius, and his smarts had scored him a place into some of the more advanced classes at Bodhum High even though all the other kids his age were still in middle school. Lightning had never seen it with her own eyes, but between his age and his nerdiness, she knew that he was a prime bullying target. Some of the bullying probably stopped after he had been dubbed a Savior of Cocoon, but she knew it couldn't have done much more to help his social life. Savior or not, he had still been a Pulse l'Cie. Her leaving Bodhum High might not have been the sole reason that Hope had accepted an early offer into The Academy, a specialized learning college for gifted individuals, but she was pretty sure that it had been the first step.

"Does it have something to do with your dad?" Hope continued to ask when Lightning hadn't answered him. "Today's visiting day, right? Where's Serah—"

"It's nothing," Lightning dismissed, earning her an alarmed expression from Hope. She definitely didn't want to talk to Hope about Serah. She also didn't like the idea of mentioning her father's lockdown; it was none of Hope's business. But she knew that he wouldn't stop staring at her like that unless she explained herself, so she settled on the only subject that could probably help her out of the conversational hole she had already dug. "I've been getting a lot of Fang-related assignments lately. Just last night, I had to follow-up on a complaint after Snow got some punks to make a graffiti portrait of her."

"He really doesn't care about anyone but himself, does he?"

Lightning looked up to see Hope's face harden into a scowl before slightly relaxing as he continued to think about what Lightning had said.

"But I kinda know what you mean. You go awhile not hearing about them, and you think everything's gonna go back to feeling normal, but then all of a sudden you see something that reminds you of them… and all the hurt just comes back, as if it all happened yesterday. You know, sometimes I sit down and still kinda wonder what our lives would be like if we had stopped Dysley sooner? Snow wouldn't be doing those stupid NORA missions. Fang would still be alive and the Ragnarok thing never would've happened. Maybe you two would still be dating. My dad could've met Vanille and maybe we could've hung out more…"

Hope was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he missed the uncomfortable look that passed over Lightning's face during his spiel.

"…And it sucks knowing she's down there somewhere. By herself."

"She's not by herself," Lightning finally took the opportunity to speak up. "She's with her people."

"We're her people!" Hope quickly returned. "We were a family, and if it weren't for those fal'Cie, she'd still be here. We'd all still be together. And I swear, one day we all will—" Hope stopped mid-speech as if something had just hit him. "Light?" He looked to Lightning with wide, apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be talking about finding Vanille when Fang—"

"Hope." Lightning's expression turned stern as she spoke. "I'm over it."

Hope's brow slightly crinkled as if he were uncertain whether to believe her or not.

"Besides, Vanille was my friend, too," Lightning reminded. "And it's not like me and Fang had a touching goodbye. All things considered, I think I'd rather see Vanille again if I were given the choice between the two."

"Yeah, I guess…" Hope said slowly, letting his eyes sink to the floor. "You sometimes get intel on what's happening on Pulse, right? What do you think Vanille might be doing down there? Like right now?"

'Leading a small rebel army to wreak havoc against Cocoonian camps,' Lightning thought to herself. "Um…" Lightning reached up to gently rub the bottom of her chin. It was a bit of a weird question to ask but Hope did seem so, well… hopeful. She didn't want to be the one to take that away from him. "I guess Vanille was always a free spirit. So right now… I don't know. I bet she's probably out doing something that makes her happy. Just because. Like skipping or singing in a field… Maybe even picking flowers…"

* * *

"Stripping?!"

The loud exclamation bounced off the walls as two travelers slowly ascended the decaying stairwell of a deserted tower.

"What do you mean she's stripping?" the older of the two, a dark-skinned man with a puffy Afro huffed.

"She's not _exactly_ stripping," the younger woman who was leading the way by about four steps replied. "She's just going to this pond everyday and slowly taking off some of her clothes in front of this general to get his guard down so she can continually get stuff from him. Wait. Okay. Never mind. That's exactly what she's doing, Sazh. Vanille is stripping."

"Fang, wait up. Let's stop here. I need a break." Sazh bent over and heaved in a loud, deep breath. "This…" he breathed as he slowly caught his breath. "This isn't cool. It's bad enough that I walk in on you with your Ragnarok groupies so often, but… Vanille stripping?"

"I don't like it either, old man." Oerba Yun Fang paused on the stairs and planted her hands on her hips so that they were pressing into the sides of her royal blue sari. "But she has to cover most of her face so that no one recognizes her, so the easiest way for her to get close enough—no questions asked—to give him a good saboteur spell is to show a little leg. And maybe some side boob."

Sazh made a disgusted groaning sound.

"The other option would be killing him, but that would stop the information flow."

"Gods…" Sazh still had a distressed look on his face. "Vanille is busy playing striptease… At least that explains why you wanted me to come along, although you still didn't tell me what we're doing here." He rose to his feet and looked around the ancient stone stairwell.

"Sazh. Buddy. Don't sell yourself short. I invited you because you're my number one advisor."

Sazh looked to Fang with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Annndddd because Vanille's too busy playing striptease… But you're gonna be glad ya came because guess what?" A sly grin began to work its way across Fang's face. "You're gonna see me tame a dragon."

"Oh, really? That's what we're doing here?" Sazh asked skeptically. "Taming a dragon?"

Sazh and Fang just stared at each other for a moment, Fang's face brimming with excitement and Sazh's displaying the cynicism of a man who's had to put up with way too much shit in his lifetime. It wasn't until it dawned on Sazh how genuinely excited Fang looked that he realized… they actually were climbing the stairwell of some old, rotting tower in order to tame a dragon.

"HELLLLLLLLL TO THE NO! I'M—"

"No, no, no! Don't go!" Fang lunged forward to grab Sazh by the back of his jacket collar as the man spun around to head back down the stairs. "This could be good! You've seen all the Cocoonian soldiers popping up around here lately. And just the other day they attacked that river village! A dragon could be a good security system, and think of the scouting capabilities!"

"My good judgment should've told me not to come with you," Sazh griped, pointing an angry finger down to the ground. "I knew you were gonna get me into some crazy shit because crazy shit is your usual MO and I know this is supposed to be your meditation time with Caius and Caius never lets you skip meditation time!"

"Taming it shouldn't even be that hard! The elders say that this dragon is my eidolon, or spirit animal or something. We're already bonded. I've just got to show him. And think of how cool it would be to show up at the reenactment tomorrow riding a dragon. I'll be Ragnarok starring as Ragnarok riding in on my own mini Ragnarok."

"I have a son, Fang! I NEED TO LIVE!"

"Could you be anymore dramatic? And it's not like ya haven't been through worse… But if you wanna go," Fang released her grip from around Sazh's collar and moved up a step, "I'm not stopping ya. Although I'd miss you every second along the way, Sazhy."

Sazh angrily stared Fang down before exhaling a relenting huff of air. "Fine. I'll stay."

Fang beamed.

"But only because I don't wanna be the one to tell Caius where you went. That, and somebody has to drag your body back if this all goes wrong. Maybe I can get that weird-looking guy with the saxophone to play Careless Whisper at your funeral. Vanille could even strip to it."

"I appreciate you too, Sazh," Fang replied, turning to continue to lead the way up the stairs.

After what seemed like a thousand steps later, the two came to a break in the staircase. Up above, they could see the edge of what looked like an open platform, but the remaining stairs leading up to that level looked to be torn out.

"Well, that was fun," Sazh stated, putting his fists on his hips. "Guess we'd better leave now."

"Hold up." Fang squinted and took a step forward. "The walls have deep enough grooves. We can climb the rest of the way."

"Fang, does it look like I'm in the climbing mood?" Sazh asked, fists still on his hips.

Fang studied Sazh for a brief moment before shaking her head. She would only push the man oh so far before giving him a break. "I can climb the rest of the way," she corrected herself.

Sazh nodded in approval and leaned against the staircase wall as Fang began to climb it. When she was finally able to reach her hand on the platform and grab something sturdy enough, she swung the rest of her body up onto it.

"What do you see up there?" Sazh's voice hissed from below. "Do you see the dragon?"

"I, uh…" Fang rolled onto her stomach and planted her hands against the ground to push herself up as she surveyed the area. "There's a lot of rocks… broken columns… some bones… and…"

A deep growl bellowed from across the room, causing Fang to freeze. Her eyes slowly lifted to land on the huge, shiny, black-scaled beast that was curled up in the far back shadows of the gigantic room. Its head was lifted and it was staring at Fang through perfectly dark eyes.

"… a dragon."

"So you gonna slay it now?"

"Just… just give me a moment," Fang harshly whispered in reply, keeping her eyes trained on the dragon as it slowly rose to its feet. "Alright… just like Caius said," she mumbled to herself. She slowly reached her hand behind her to where her spear was strapped to her back, just in case. "Embrace chaos… control your anger and you can control fate…"

Her heart started to pound wildly in her chest as the dragon took a step closer, rattling the unstable building as its clawed foot hit the ground. Concentrating seemed so much easier during her meditation sessions.

"Embrace chaos… embrace chaos… embrace chaos…" she quickly chanted as the dragon continued to move closer. "Embrace—crap!"

A piercing roar blasted through the area as the dragon lunged forward, swiping one of its heavy claws at Fang but barely missing her.

"What's going on up there?" Sazh called.

"I'm not…" Fang yelled back in full sprint across the room as a huge plume of fire chased after her, "…embracing chaos! Umph!" Fang grunted as her ass hit the floor from her jumping over some fallen stone structure in order to take cover. "Arrggg! This damned chaos method will work at every single inopportune moment it gets, but when I actually need—ahhh!" Fang gripped her right shoulder as a searing pain shot through it. After the initial shock of the burn had worn off, Fang peeled back her hand and couldn't help but feel somewhat of a relief. Her usually white l'Cie brand was now glowing orange and from the other side of her barricade, she swore that she could hear the dragon softly groaning. "Sazh! It's work—RAHHH!" Another sharp pain burst through her stomach, accompanied by the howl of the dragon somewhere else in the room.

This was a pain that was familiar… a pain that she had endured before.

This was a pain that had almost destroyed a planet.

Fang's body started heating up and she swore that her vision was beginning to turn red. A throbbing ache pulsed beneath her skull that even made her ears pound. In the back of her mind, she could somewhat register the dragon off to her side, whimpering.

'Embrace chaos,' she thought to herself, and the pain began to dull out. Her vision started to become sharper and a new, rejuvenating feeling began to wash over her insides, making her feel stronger as if her bones and muscles were being reinforced.

It was happening. She was making it happen.

"Fang?" Sazh called, standing up on his tiptoes to try and get a peep at what might be taking place on the upper level. He couldn't be exactly sure of what was going on. All he could hear was a mix of different long, drawn out moans. He couldn't even tell whether they were coming from Fang or the dragon. "Talk to me, Fang!"

There was another loud roar that made Sazh shrink back against the wall, but this roar sounded nothing like the roar he had heard earlier. This roar sounded as if it had come from a totally different beast.

"Fang?" the name came out barely above a squeak.

More whimpering could be heard from the upper level before everything went silent. Sazh just stayed where he was, frozen in fear as he clung to the wall. His eyes were glued to the edge of the upper platform, not knowing what to expect but knowing he had to expect something.

"Sazh?"

The man's muscles relaxed and he let out a deep, pent up breath of air on hearing Fang's voice. "Girl, you—just please tell me something good happened."

The upper platform rumbled as a bunch of loud thuds could be heard above. "Sazh," Fang called again from the platform. A large, black, reptilian face peered over the edge to stare at Sazh through big, dark eyes. Immediately after, Fang's head popped out from behind it, a victorious grin plastered on her face. "Looks like we're heading to the reenactment in style."

* * *

**A/N:** Hey, y'all. Just wanted to say wow... Thanks for all the feedback! Y'all are awesome and this thing may be starting off a little slow, but i'm planning on having it live up to all (or at least some) of the expectations. And Thunder, I'm doing pretty good, thanks for asking! Just up to my same old same. Hope everything's going great on your (and everyone elses) end too.


	3. Chapter 3

Lightning tightly gripped the seatbelt straps that ran down her shoulders as the interplanetary plane hit turbulence. She'd never had any personal offense against flying, but she was starting to regret her decision to go on this mission more and more with each jerk that the aircraft endured.

"You're one of them Saviors of Cocoon, aint'cha?" the soldier seated to her left asked as he loomed over to stare her in the face.

"And if I am?" Lightning returned offhandedly, leaning her head back against the seat. She was more focused on keeping down her breakfast than entertaining the man beside her.

"Oh, nothin'," the soldier replied, still leaning forward to examine Lightning's face. "It's just none of ya struck me as the fightin' type. Just thought y'all were all about smiling for cameras and hangin' out with celebrities and whatnot. You know how to use that gun ya got there, precious?"

Lightning's eyes narrowed as she turned her head to give the soldier a derisive look. "Would you like a demonstration?"

"Okay, you two," a female soldier sitting across from them piped up over the chuckling of the first soldier. "Especially you, Knolls." She looked to the soldier seated next to Lightning. "She's new. Give her a break. Don't pay him any mind, Hollywood." The soldier now looked to Lightning. "Knolls can be a pain in the ass, but he means well. I'm Private Walker. Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure," Lightning replied dryly.

"Have you ever rode a planetary to Pulse before?"

"No."

"No problem," Walker said with a smile. "Here are the basics. We're going to get a lot of turbulence for a while, but it's when the turbulence stops that things really get tough. We're going into the Gamma region of the planet, which we know has a heavy Pulsian military presence. So once we break into Pulsian air, we're probably going to get on the radar. That means the ship only has a few minutes before the Pulsians gather some of their autobots, weaponry, and wyverns and try to crash us. So when the red light up there comes on, that means it's time to put your helmet on and enter your pod. The captain puts in our coordinates, shoots us and the pickup pods off as well as some decoys, just to confuse the Pulsians, and then the ship leaves Pulsian air while we prep for a bumpy landing. Once the mission is over, we either send for an immediate evac or head to the predetermined pickup coordinates we were given earlier. The pickup pods should be there and ready for when the ship comes back around. Got it?"

"Sounds straight forward enough."

The aircraft caught another shaking fit and all of the soldiers held onto their seatbelts.

"Uh oh!" Knolls called as a red light flooded the cabin. "Almost go-time!"

Lightning rolled her eyes and reached between her legs to bring up her PSICOM helmet. As she snapped the helmet in place, watching as a bunch of numbers and graphs immediately flashed across her visor, she couldn't help but feel a strange twinge of déjà vu. The last time she had worn a full suit of PSICOM armor, she had been trying to infiltrate Sanctum headquarters to take PSICOM down. Now, four years later, here she was. Putting on the helmet again in an attempt to help them.

"Pods up!"

Lightning's seat leaned backwards as a heavy, metallic casing closed over it. All of the other noise in the aircraft was immediately shut out once the pod had finished encapsulating her, and as she looked out the pod's small window, she could see that most of the soldiers across from her were now relaxing in their own pods, glad to finally be in them.

"THREE…" The captain's voice called through a radio receiver in the small capsule, "TWO… ONE."

Lightning's stomach dropped. She was falling. A sudden kick jerked on at the back of the pod. Her back pressed tightly against the seat as the small transportation device zoomed forward. Through the window, everything passed by at first as a bluish-white blur, but the view immediately turned green before Lightning's body roughly jerked forwards before being thrown back into the seat by her safety belt.

The pod had stopped.

Lightning took a few minutes to compose herself, taking in long, deep breaths as she stared at the smoky pod window.

"Hollywood, you alright?" Walker's voice asked through the helmet radio.

"I'm fine," Lightning breathed after she had found the button to turn her radio on. Her hands were shaking. "Just getting my bearings."

"Hang tight. I'll help you out."

A loud hissing sound accompanied by a sudden burst of light filled the pod as the front of the capsule slid open. A fully armored PSICOM soldier stood over the pod and leaned down to pick at the buckle of Lightning's safety belt.

"Buckle seems to be jammed, but no worries," the soldier—Walker—said as she continued to pull and yank at the safety belt. "Your body probably won't mind you sitting for a bit longer anyway. The trip's rough for everyone on their first time."

Lightning mumbled in response, but she had lost track of conversation the moment that the capsule had slid open.

"So this is Pulse…" she said under her breath as she looked past Walker's helmeted head to study her surroundings. She had heard a lot of stories about the world below, and had seen pictures in textbooks and documentaries, but none of them did it justice. Lightning could honestly say that she had never seen such a clear blue sky, such bright green grass, or such tall, colorful flowers. Their pods had landed in a small sort of alcove between some large stony cliffs, but even the elemental swirls of the rock formations were captivating compared to many of the things she had seen on Cocoon. Something about this world just hit her as raw and natural… and she had to admit, even to herself, that it was a beautiful thing.

"Hey guys! Looky what I found!"

"EEEPP!"

Lightning paused her sight-seeing to look across the alcove where one soldier, undoubtedly Knolls from his voice, was holding onto a brown, bulbous looking creature.

"Whattaya think? It's kinda cute, right?" Knolls asked, tightening his grip around the creature as it desperately wriggled to get free.

Although no one could see it due to her helmet, Lightning's lip curled up in disgust. That thing was nowhere near cute. It was about as big as a medium-sized dog, but so much rounder with a leafy tree branch growing out the top of its head like an antenna. It's mouth was disproportionately big compared to the rest of its body, which made Lightning dislike it even more because of all the loud squawking that was coming out of it.

"EEEEEEPPPP!"

"Can you put that thing down?" Walker snapped, turning away from Lightning's buckle for a brief moment to glance at Knolls. "It's too loud. It's going to give away our position."

"No way! I'm thinkin' of taking it back with us. My kids'll love this."

"Really? How in the hell do you expect to get it back on the—"

"GGGRRRRROOOAAAARRRRRR!"

All of the soldiers in the alcove froze on hearing the deep bellow that had sounded from somewhere in the near distance.

"What was that?" Walker asked, her helmet tilted up to the sky as her attention was once again taken away from Lightning's jammed buckle.

But what it was that had made the loud bellow wasn't what bothered Lightning. She was more concerned about where it was. One hand reached down to the gunblade case at her waist, but the thing was empty. Light's head quickly shot down to see that the weapon had fallen out of its case during her bumpy landing to rest on the pod floor (and out of her reach due to her busted buckle).

"I need my gunblade," the pink-head stated as her head darted back up to face Walker. "Get my gunblade. Now."

"One sec…" Walker's helmet was still tilted up to the sky. "Everyone, weapons out and keep your eyes peeled for feral beasts."

"EEEPP! EEEEPP! EEEPP!" The round creature in the soldier's arms squeaked even louder and wriggled even more violently.

"Seriously!" Walker's voice had now grown exasperated as she turned to Knolls. "Put that thing dow—"

"GGGRRRRROOOAAAARRRRRR!"

The alcove darkened as something gigantic barreled over the top of one of the stone cliffs, effectively blocking out the sun for a split second. As light soon flooded back into the space, the earth beneath everyone's feet quaked, and Lightning's body rattled inside her pod.

"GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

All eyes were suddenly drawn to the humongous beast that had landed on the other end of the alcove. It was a gigantic, almost blob-shaped monster that was covered in moss, grass, and algae. It had a wide, gaping mouth that split across nearly its entire body and housed a row of sharp fangs.

"GRRRRROOOOAAAAARRRRRR!" The beast stomped its stubby legs, shaking the ground, as wild vines lifted from its back to wildly gnash back and forth through the air.

Lightning's hands unthinkingly grabbed at her seatbelt straps and started yanking at them, her head shooting towards Walker. "GUNBLADE!"

"They need help!" Walker shouted, looking back towards her fellow privates who were now rushing the beast with their weapons raised.

"I'm stuck in this damned pod! I need help!" Lightning nearly exploded back at her.

"I'll get you out, I promise! Just sit tight for one more sec!" were the last words Lightning heard before Walker had pulled out her gun and sprinted towards the beast.

POP! POP! POP!

Lightning anxiously watched as the PSICOM privates raced around the beast, firing their weapons. But just as if they were toy soldiers, beast shot one of its vines to smack each private, one by one, across the alcove until the only soldier left standing was the one with the ugly, brown, yapping creature in his arms.

"KNOLLS!" Lightning screamed, instantly gaining the obviously jumpy soldier's attention. "Knolls, get me out of here!"

Knolls' body twitched forward and halted, as if he were fighting an internal dilemma on whether to help her or make a run for it. Within another split second, he had obviously made his choice and dropped the bulbish creature to race forward in Lightning's direction. "Whatta I do? Whatta I do?" he fretfully huffed out as he neared Light's pod.

"Grab the gunblade on the floor. Hurry!"

"Gotcha."

Knolls immediately dropped down on his knees to snatch up the weapon, giving Lightning a clear look ahead at the vicious monster that should have still been advancing towards them… but wasn't. Instead, it was leaning its head down for the ugly, brown creature that Knolls had been holding onto to nuzzle. It was then that Lightning finally realized how alike the two creatures looked.

"Here it is!" Knolls announced as he excitedly thrust the gunblade into Lightning's chest.

"MEEEEPPPPP!" The small brown creature yelped and jumped up to run behind the greener, bigger beast on hearing Knolls' voice carry across the alcove.

A low grumble emanated from the big beast's throat and its dark beady eyes lifted to fasten themselves on Knolls. One of its chubby legs moved back and forth against the ground. It was preparing for something, and whatever it was that it was preparing for couldn't be good.

"GRAAAWWWWWRRRRR!"

"MOVE!"

Lightning's reflexes acted in hyper speed as the woman pushed Knolls away with one hand and lifted her gunblade to point directly at the face of the huge beast that rushed towards them with the other. The popping of incessant gunfire filled her ears as she held her finger down against the gunblade's trigger.

"RREEEEAAAAHHHHH!" The beast swerved, but never stopped running, as bullets littered across its face. "WAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" It let out one last screech before wildly bucking forward, dead into the side of Lightning's pod.

Lightning's stomach jumped for the second time that day as she once again felt herself soaring. She was surrounded by sky. Then branches and leaves.

BOOM!

A sharp pain shot into her side from the impact.

CRACK!

The world word was out of sync. She was still moving, at an extremely fast pace, but where to she had no idea. Everything was rolling by too fast. Her body tumbled and rocked, a new, more acute pain entering her with each impact. Until finally, with one last bang, her pod came to a halt.

* * *

"I think these earrings would look lovely on you, Ragnarok."

Fang stared intently into the mirror as she sat in one of the dressing rooms in the New Paddra Ampitheatre. Her eyes were locked on the attractive young woman who leaned over her shoulder, her cheek hovering dangerously close to Fang's as she dangled an earring up to the ear on the opposite side of Fang's head.

"They make your eyes look like they're sparkling." Fingertips traced down Fang's earlobe to gently caress the side of her neck until they were lightly resting on her shoulder.

"But no one will see them. Or my eyes." Fang was still staring at the girl through the mirror, a subdued smirk barely visible on her lips. "I'll be wearing the mask." She lifted her hands to accentuate her point, twisting her forearms a bit so that the strands of shimmery blue material that covered and hung down from her skin shook.

Today was a somewhat big day. It was a festival day of sorts, celebrating the end of a prosperous wet season. For the occasion, right after dusk there would be a children's production for the reenactment of the 'Great Escape', the Gran Pulsian evacuation from Cocoon four years ago. In the reenactment, Fang would be reprising her role as Ragnarok and wearing a full bodied suit made out of thousands of thin, stringy tassels as she did so.

Hot breath brushed across the warrior's cheek as the girl leaned closer. "I know, but I'm more interested in how you'll look after the show."

"Hmm…" Fang finally turned away from the mirror to look directly into the girl's face, which was only mere centimeters away from her own. She slightly tilted her head to feign innocence as she asked, "And why would ya be interested in that?"

The girl sweetly smiled and moved forward to close the small distance between the two. She captured Fang's upper lip between her own, holding them together for a brief moment before pulling away. "Let's just say…" she replied in a husky whisper, "I have my reasons."

Now it was Fang's turn to smile as she closed the small gap between them again to softly pick back up where their lips had previously left off.

"Ahem…"

So into the moment was she, that Fang neither heard the dressing room door open nor the brusquely cleared throat from the doorway. She just emitted a low, content hum and mindlessly lifted a hand to brush her fingertips over the girl's collarbone, letting her digits glide across the girl's skin until they reached the collar of her blouse, right above the cloth's top button.

"AHEM!"

Both Fang and the girl simultaneously jumped away from each other at the loud interruption.

"What the—" Fang let slip, still in slight shock as the girl stood, stiff as a board, staring towards the dressing room doorway with a horror-struck look on her face.

"General Caius!" the girl squeaked, causing Fang to inwardly groan without even having to look at their interrupter. "I was—I was just preparing Ragnarok for her—"

"Out," the gravelly voice that Fang had grown to at times respect or loathe growled from the doorway.

"Yes, sir."

Fang rubbed her hands over her face as she listened to the hurried footsteps of the girl rushing out of the room, the door slamming behind her. A short moment passed before Fang could now hear the clicking of boots approaching the back of her chair.

"Ya know," Fang began, tiredly pulling her hands away from her face but still not bothering to turn around to grant eye contact to her new visitor, "In many places, it's considered good manners to knock."

"Is it true that you're the one who brought that wretched beast to our city?" A shadow fell over Fang as the voice spoke, and she knew that Caius was standing right behind her. She had successfully avoided the man for the past twenty four hours after skipping one of their mandatory meditation sessions yesterday, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before he would find out about the dragon and come looking for her.

"That wretched beast has a name," Fang replied in an unperturbed, even tone. "And that name is Sazh."

"You impudent little..." The voice had now turned into a hostile snarl and Fang's stomach whirled as her chair was quickly jerked around so that she was now staring directly into two angry, purple eyes. "The fools and whores that you entertain all day might find your insolence charming, but it is becoming a thorn in my side and a danger to this entire community."

"A danger?" Fang asked disbelievingly, craning her neck back to get a full view of Caius's face. The man indeed looked angry. His square jaw was visibly clenched and his brow deeply furrowed. He looked even more menacing from the full-bodied black armor he was wearing and the way that his long, purple hair cast a grim shadow over half of his face. However, as unsettling as Caius's anger always made her, Fang steeled her face as well, not wanting to show the man any of her unease. "How is this a danger? IT'S A TAMED DRAGON. D'you know how big of an advantage this could be?"

"The biggest advantages are to be had during meditation sessions!" Caius exclaimed back. "You still don't understand the complexities surrounding how chaos and order affect this realm, and thus you don't know how to properly control it! And as volatile as you are, running off to fight dragons is one of the more imbecilic activities for you to be doing!"

"I don't see what the big deal is," Fang shrugged off. "I used your damned chaos method when taming the dragon. I got real experience with it. That's better than sitting out in the middle of nowhere, chanting with you about chaos over and over again. I got the dragon and I did the meditation. It's a win-win."

"You still can't wrap your thick skull around it all can you?" Caius growled. "You are nowhere near ready to be using the chaos method in the field! You aren't even ready to take walks by yourself to the nearest waterhole! What if you had messed up? What if the dragon had bested you and you lost your temper? What if you had been killed?! Then everything would have been ruined!"

"Is that some sick, twisted way of you saying ya care about me?" Fang asked, folding her arms. "I'm touched, but in case you're forgetting, I am at the helm of this whole war ship. The people look to me when things go wrong. A village gets plundered, my name gets called. Crops get burned, I'm the one who's asked for grain. They didn't feel secure, so I got them a dragon. I'm the one who the people come to! And when they do, I don't need to ask for your permission to help them."

"YOU—" Caius bellowed, lunging forward to get into Fang's face again and slam his palm on the surface of the dresser behind her, "—would do well to remember your place. Until you master your meditations, you are nothing more than a pretty distraction for the people to focus on while I get all the real work done. Nothing but something to sing and dance on a stage for them while I manage a war." Caius's eyes drifted down from Fang's face to roll over her costume, as if to drive his point home. "Don't you forget who's really in charge."

"Do ya mean you?" Fang asked icily. Her face was starting to heat up and she was beginning to feel a slight ache in her chest. "Or are ya talking about Yeul? You know. Young girl. Yay high. Blue hair. Kinda sickly looking. Owns a bunch of hoops that you like to jump through—"

"ENOUGH!"

Fang's breath caught in her throat as she was yanked out of her chair to hover in front of Caius, the man's fist tightly grasping the collar of her costume. There was an ugly grimace on his usually cool face and his eyes spelled death, but Fang's attention was not on the man's enraged face. It was instead directed at Caius's free hand, which was cocked back in a punching position right above Fang's head. Around the fist was a strange, dark aura. Something that looked surreal in its own, distorting reality and strangely blending everything—colors, shapes, and everything in the background behind the fist—together as if Fang was staring into some strange type of mirage.

"I could end you…" Caius rumbled in a shaky whisper, "If you weren't so important to everything… If the timing didn't need to be perfect… I could. Right here. Right now."

The cold, creeping feeling of fear ran up Fang's spine as she continued to stare at the anomaly happening in Caius's hand. She had only witnessed Caius use this power twice before. Both times, Caius had been irreconcilably angry. Both times, Fang had returned home wishing that she had never gone on those particular missions… wanting nothing more than to say that she had never been apart of the irreparable damage that she just felt in her gut had broken some sacred rule in the universe. But despite her fear, she kept a steady face, not wanting Caius to think that he could intimidate her. "Then I guess," she grit out, trying her best not to let her voice shake, "ya just have to let me go then. Don'tcha?"

Caius glared at Fang for a few seconds before lowering his hand and roughly shoving her back into her seat. "I don't know how well you remember our first meeting years ago," he said in a low voice as he dusted his hands off before running them down the front of his armor as if to recompose himself, "when I found you and your fellow Cocoon refugees wandering the fields outside of Oerba. Despite all of your power, you were broken. You all were broken. You were the mighty Gran Pulse warrior who had been prophesized about, but there you were. Nothing but a miserable shell filled with hate and self-loathing…"

Fang looked down to her feet as Caius spoke. She remembered all too well what she had been like in the immediate months after she had initially transformed into Ragnarok.

"…but still, we took you in. We were determined to see your potential through, and you didn't disappoint. As broken as you were, you realized what was best for your people. You made a decision—an agreement—to be their beacon of hope. To be what the people needed in order to help them rebuild their lives. How do you expect to be that beacon when you're off chasing silly whims such as taming dragons?"

"The dragon was a needed—"

"The dragon was a personal escapade and you know it!" Caius loudly cut off in a stern voice. "On that day, you stood in front of everyone and surrendered your old identity as the rash and careless Oerba Yun Fang in order to become Ragnarok for the people. And because of that, it is the people who you belong to when you're outside. But don't you ever forget that you also made the decision to train in the art of chaos. So when you're out of the public eye…" Caius's voice dropped sinisterly and Fang looked up from her feet to notice that he was intensely glaring at her through narrowed eyes. "…you belong to me."

Fang's could feel her face slowly beginning to contort into an angered scowl.

"So go ahead and do whatever needs to be done to help you cope with that. You can continue to keep burying yourself in fame and women for all I care, but you will not jeopardize our mission by going out on personal field trips that have the power to ruin everything."

Caius and Fang held each others' angry gazes for a few seconds before two timid knocks sounded on the door. "Ex…excuse me?" The girl who had previously been in the room with Fang slowly opened the door to peek her head in. "General Caius, Yeul is outside and would like a word with you."

"Of course she would…" Fang snorted, ignoring the contemptuous look that Caius shot in her direction from the comment.

"I'm on my way," Caius responded coolly, as if he had not been teetering the homicidal line just a few seconds ago. "Ragnarok, we will continue this conversation later."

Fang didn't answer, but silently watched Caius as he exited the dressing room, giving the girl a curt nod as he passed her on his way out. Once Caius was out of sight, Fang released a deep breath that she didn't even know she had been holding.

"Ragnarok?"

Before Fang could even look back up towards the girl, she felt her hands on her, circling around her neck in a light embrace.

"I think you're a great leader…" Lips gently pressed into Fang's neck. "And that you make great decisions." The kisses slowly began to trail down. "And that we are lucky to have such a strong, passionate—"

"What do you want?" Fang softly asked. She leaned to the side in order to pull her neck away from the girl's lips, giving her a clearer look into the girl's eyes. The girl had obviously heard the conversation between her and Caius. How couldn't she? It wasn't like they were whispering at each other the entire time. And Fang was well aware of the grand allure of wanting to have a romp with Ragnarok. Whether it was the thrill, the bragging rights, or just to sate some small curiosity, there was always something that most girls wanted when they came to Fang. But for this girl to still push like this, after hearing Fang get belittled so badly as well as hearing herself being referred to as a whore… there must've been something else she wanted. Something besides a thrill or bragging claims.

"Excuse me?" The girl's voice sounded like an even mix of shock and fear.

"You can just ask me," Fang said, trying to put on an assuring expression. "Ya don't have to go through all of this."

"What? I'm not—" the girl began, going into an immediate panic, but with the way that Fang was knowingly staring at her, she knew it was of no use. She took a calming breath and closed her eyes. "It's my cousin," she finally stated. "He was living outside of Palumpolum when we all evacuated, but he didn't cross through the Palumpolum portal. He was dating this Cocoonian girl then. I don't think he wanted to leave her…"

Fang just quietly nodded along as she listened.

"…And I'm used to getting updates from him from correspondence. He said he was good at blending in and knew how to avoid Guardian Corps and ID chip checks, but it's been months since I've heard from him and I'm afraid… What if they found out he's Gran Pulsian? He could be in one of those horrible camps or-or even worse. Ragnarok, do you think… Do you think maybe you could go up there? That you could save him?"

Fang arched a surprised eyebrow at the request. She had been asked a lot of things in the past few years, but she had never been asked to go back to Cocoon.

"I mean… never mind. It's a stupid idea. And I know General Caius would never let you—"

"Hey." Fang halted the girl's rambling by firmly taking her hand in her own. "Caius does not own me," she stated as she looked the girl dead in the eyes. "And if I can find a way, I will go back to Cocoon, and I will free our people."

The girl's face dropped in surprise. "I… I… thank you, Ragnarok. Thank you sooo much. Is there, um, anything that you need? Or anything that I can get you right now?"

"Some privacy would be nice," Fang admitted, turning forward to look at herself in the mirror. "I'd like a moment to just get ready for the performance."

"Oh… okay." The girl slowly lifted herself up to back away from Fang's chair. "But really, I can't thank you enough, Ragnarok. Really. I can't."

Fang just silently nodded along with each of the girl's thank you's until she heard the door shut and the room go silent.

As she sat and stared at herself through the mirror, all Fang could think about was Caius. Her face started heating again and her breathing picked up as she pictured his face, so close to hers, saying that she belonged to him.

Just wanting to hit something, Fang growled and swatted an empty bottle that was sitting on the edge of the dresser so that it went flying across the room before smashing into the opposite wall. How could Caius have the audacity to tell her that she wasn't being the beacon of hope that the people needed? It was his strict rules that had nearly doused a girl's hopes just a moment ago.

"Grrrr!" Fang's hands shot up to grip her head, which had suddenly began to throb to the point where her vision was starting to blur. "Not… now…" she breathed to herself when that familiar ache started ripping through her chest. She tried her best not to keep thinking about it… to get her mind off of Caius and chaos, but the harder she tried to get it out of her mind, the more it came jumping to the forefront. She dug her nails into her scalp and tightly shut her eyes, taking deep, shaky breaths until the ache in chest began to subside. The worst was over. She wouldn't fully transform, but there was still so much steam she had to blow off. So much pent up anger that she just needed to let loose.

Her eyes flew open and she was at once met by her reflection in the mirror. The eyes that stared back at her weren't fully her own and her body looked tense with her muscles and veins seeming more pronounced than usual. "Arrrrggg…" She could feel all the pent up energy moving through her, bubbling up until it had nowhere to go. Until she had no choice but to kick her head back and, "RRRAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

* * *

"—AAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRR!"

Lightning quickly ducked down behind a large nearby stone that was jutting from the ground. After her bad run in with the giant plant-blob near her landing spot, she had spent a good amount of her time either fighting or running from a number of monsters, from a pack of goblins to even a group of large flowers that had come to life and started attacking her when she had neared them. But even with all of the monsters she had already faced today, none of them had sounded as fierce as the beast whose roar had just belted across the terrain.

"Whoooo!"

"Yaahhaaaa!"

"Yayyyyyy!"

Lightning's brow ruffled on hearing a chorus of shouting and cheers erupt through the air, immediately following the roar. She peered from behind her rock, but saw nothing but more mountainside and plateau.

More cheers erupted, but this time Lightning was able to gauge the general direction. The noises seemed to be coming from further up, from behind a thick line of trees. She surmised that the people making the noises were located there. She was also sure that she was on the outskirts of some Pulsian colony. Cocoonians would never get this loud on Pulsian soil and an area this high surrounded by so many rocks and trees seemed like a prime defensive location, a location that the Pulsians undoubtedly got first dibs on. Part of her wondered whether she should just slowly continue hiking down the trail. However, another part of her reminded her of the throbbing ache in her side and how she didn't know her current location, therefore making it hard for her to find the pick-up point. If she was going to traverse the Pulsian wilds alone, she should at least try to snag some food, water, or medical supplies from this settlement before heading out.

So with that in mind, she forced herself to work through the pain as she hiked upwards until she was crouching behind a new stone, peering from behind the blockade to spy a large crowd that was seated in front of what looked to be an outdoor amphitheatre.

By now, the whole area was filled with cheering, clapping, oooohhs, and ahhhhhs. Lightning squinted as she watched a number of tiny bodies hop and skip across the stage. Even from her distance, she could clearly see that some of the children were wearing PSICOM uniforms made from cardboard with one child standing on a platform above the rest, dressed as a mini primarch in long, white robes. Running rampant around the rest of the stage, fighting the children in the PSICOM boxes, were other kids in what looked to be cultural garb, wielding toy axes, guns, bows, and spears. As each PSICOM child fell to the ground, the attacking Pulsian one would run through and disappear behind one of the many shimmery sheets that were placed across the stage. Lightning leaned forward more to get a better look at the scene. Were those supposed to be portals? Was this… a play about the day that they attacked the Sanctum?

"ROAR!"

As if to answer her question, a new actor jumped out from backstage, and Lightning immediately felt ill. On stage, now running around amongst the other characters, was someone dressed as Ragnarok. The costume was long and intricate, made out of an innumerable amount of shiny blue threads that shook and shimmered with every move the Ragnarok made. The costume was topped with a large blue and orange mask, set in an angry grimace with bared teeth. From the actor's size, Lightning could tell that this role had been given to an adult, who playfully ran around the stage chasing the remaining PSICOM kids before snatching up the child dressed as the Primarch and holding the youngster over his head as he made more roaring sounds.

The audience seemed to think it was the cutest thing, but Lightning couldn't help but feel offended. They were celebrating it. They were down here celebrating a monster who tried to destroy her planet and everyone on it… A monster who had stripped Lightning of almost everything she had ever truly cared about and fell from the face of Cocoon before it could finish the job…

"Oi, what are you doing way back here?"

Lightning whipped around on hearing a man's voice directly behind her. She had been so mesmerized by what was happening on the stage that she hadn't even noticed someone approaching her.

"You'd get a much better view if you just—oh crap." The man's eyes nearly bulged out of his head when the soldier turned around.

That's when Lightning realized…

Shit.

She hadn't taken off her PSICOM armor.

"COCOON!"

All of the noise from the stage immediately stopped as the man's voice rang out across the quad.

"PSICOM FROM COC—"

Lightning shot a foot forward, ignoring the pain in her side, to swipe the man's legs out from under him. He hadn't even hit the ground before she was on her feet and sprinting towards a nearby thicket. If she could get to the trees, maybe she could find a hiding spot. Maybe she could lose them.

Out of seemingly nowhere, another man jumped in front of Lightning with a gun raised, but Lightning would make quick work of him. Without missing a step, she leapt in the air and swung her leg over once again to kick the weapon out of the man's hand and lower a fist to quickly jab him across the face as she came down.

"Augh…" Lightning hissed as she stumbled on her landing, the ache in her side feeling more prevalent than ever. She didn't have time to worry about that now, though. She had to get out of there before more—

"Nuh uh." She couldn't even finish the thought before someone new had blocked her path… the Ragnarok who had just been on stage. The actor was still donned in his—or better yet her, now that Lightning was close enough to see how all the strands clung to a female silhouette—costume, mask and all, but in one hand she gripped a tall, red spear. Unlike the last man to jump in Light's way, the actress wasn't in a tense, fighting stance. She just stood there, body looking as relaxed as it could be in that ridiculous costume with her head curiously tilted.

Lightning grit her teeth and swiftly reached down to snatch her gunblade from its case to swing upwards in the actress's direction.

CLANGGGG!

Just as quickly as she had attacked, the actress had twisted his spear to block the blade with a collision hard enough to make Lightning stagger back a few steps. So the actress was quick… and strong. Maybe she wouldn't be as big of a pushover as Lightning had first expected.

An almost electric silence surrounded them and Lightning suddenly became aware of the giant crowd of Pulsians who begun to circle them. No other aggressors moved forward. Everyone seemed perfectly fine with just gathering around to whisper amongst themselves, almost as if they were watching an after class fight in a schoolyard. Lightning gripped her blade even tighter, not exactly knowing where she should be focusing her attention or whether she should expect any surprises. If she had been paying close enough attention to the Ragnarok, she would've noticed the actress turn her head to look off past the crowd to the tall man with purple hair who stood next beneath a far off tree with his arms folded against his chest and a stern, disapproving look on his face. She may have even heard the low growl of discontent that rumbled deep from the actress's throat as she turned back around to face Lightning. But out of the corner of her eye, Lightning would catch the actress's quick lunge forward, and quickly dodge just in enough time to avoid being stabbed by the tip of that red spear.

A sharp pain shot up Lightning's side as she slid to her left. The actress straightened up before loosening back into that casual standing position again. Through the dark, jeweled eyes of the mask, Lightning could feel the actress's eyes examining her, wondering how she could have dodged the attack so quickly.

"Ragnarok… Ragnarok… Ragnarok! Ragnarok!"

Lightning cursed to herself as the surrounding crowd began to chant and the actress took a slow, cautionary step to the side, causing Lightning to mirror the move until the were slowly circling around the small space, each with their weapons raised. Every few steps the actress would lash out with the spear and every time, Lightning would effectively block each attack while trying to squeeze in one of her own.

As strong as the actress apparently was and as blatantly injured as Light was, the actress still wasn't trying to overpower her. She was toying with her. Taunting her. Lightning could feel it. She had interrupted their stage production and now this 'Ragnarok' was trying to put on a production of her own… and Lightning hated her for it. From the offensive play, the dumb costume, the hideous mask, and the treating her like some type of circus cat, she had had enough. If the Ragnarok wanted a show, she'd give her one…

* * *

Noel Kreiss watched from his seat on the edge of the amphitheatre stage as Fang continued to engage the lone Cocoon soldier in battle. At first he had felt bad for the soldier, seeing as she was obviously alone and wounded. It was just bad luck that she had stumbled upon their city, and even worse luck that she had done so when both Fang and Caius were in a mood. It must be rough following orders that you think are right for your homeland and then ending up in this type of situation… but despite all that, Noel was finding it hard to feel that much sorry for the soldier now.

Something must've happened in that circle that must've just made her snap. Knowing Fang, she could've made some snide remark to piss the soldier off, but whatever it was, it had done the trick. The viper was darting this way and that… hopping, sliding, and jumping with her blade at the ready, giving Fang quite the run for her money in battle. It was actually quite a good show, although he knew that Caius probably wasn't finding this interesting at all. The man had little tolerance for entertaining those who he considered enemies…

"Hey, Noel!"

Noel perked up on hearing the familiar voice and turned his head to smile at the latecomer.

"Vanille," he greeted, watching as the girl approached. "How goes it?"

"Goes well," Vanille replied, giving Noel a tired smile where her eyes did more work than her lips. "I knew I'd be late, but I didn't think I'd miss the show completely."

"You didn't miss it. At least, not exactly…" Noel's voice wavered a bit as he tried to think of a good way to start explaining the new turn of events. "Fang's picking a fight with a Cocoonian."

"Really?" Vanille's olive colored eyes lit up as she turned her head towards the crowd. "What are the odds?"

"I would say ten to one on Fang, but I dunno. The Cocoonian is keeping up pretty well."

"No, not those odds! I mean—here. Look what I got!" And just like that, in that strange way that was so characteristic of Vanille, the young orangish-red haired woman no longer looked tired but instead had turned giddy with excitement. She reached into a satchel that hung down near her waist and pulled out a thin tablet. "I was able to trade for this with General Piquely today."

"That Cocoonian guy you visit all the time?" Noel asked in an unsure voice, knowing that 'visit' was a very general term for whatever it was that Vanille was actually doing. "You two are trading stuff now?"

"Well, I guess you can say that," Vanille said thoughtfully, still proudly staring at the tablet in her hands. "He decided to get handsy today even when I told him to stop. So that's when I started the trade. I gave him cholera and in return took this tablet."

"What?" Noel's face dropped. It always stunned him how Vanille could sound so cheery when talking about such horrible things. "You gave him—"

"Calm down, Noel, I was able to fix him. Geez…" Vanille shook her head as she pulled herself up to sit on the stage next to the flabbergasted boy. "But guess what this is for. Go ahead. Guess."

"It, uh…" Noel looked at Vanille apprehensively before reaching out to lightly touch the tablet's edge. It didn't look any different from any other tablet he had seen. "It plays solitaire?"

"No, silly!" Vanille giggled, pulling the tablet back so that it was sitting in her lap. "It's one of those dynamic file cabinets! It can help us identify active PSICOM soldiers on Gran Pulse."

Noel just stared at her with an uncomprehending look on his face.

"Ugh… here. Let me show you." Vanille rolled her eyes and typed in the strings of pass codes she had gotten from the general weeks ago. "So for instance, one way is that we can hold it up and point it towards the soldier like this and once it gets locked onnnn… oh my gods…"

"Huh?" Noel had actually been paying close attention to the device in Vanille's hands. He found it cool that from their distance, all Vanille had to do was point it at the battling soldier and in almost no time, the name, rank, and picture of a young woman with pink hair had popped onto the screen. "Doesn't that mean it worked?" he asked, worriedly looking to Vanille who was staring incredulously across the way at the armored soldier as if she had seen a ghost.

"That's… Lightning?"

"No, the sky's pretty clear," Noel assured her, not understanding what was going on at all.

"No, no, no. THAT'S LIGHTNING!" Vanille exclaimed back with more conviction, her voice sounding excited and panicked at the same time. "Oh no… Fang's gonna try to kill Lightning!"

* * *

Lightning rolled across the ground and lifted her blade to block another strong downwards blow from the actress's spear. They had been going back and forth like this for a little while now and Lightning knew that she wouldn't be able to physically outlast her opponent in her condition, especially at the rate that the fight was escalating. The actress was getting tired too. She could feel it. It'd only be a matter of how quickly the other woman could find an open shot before she'd try to make a final blow. That's why Light had to make it first, and she knew exactly how. By hitting the actress with something that she'd never expect… the gun that her blade could transform into.

She was well aware that if she took the actress out, the rest of the crowd would probably submerge on her. Her chances of making it out alive were slim to none, but if she had to go, at least she could take the smug son-of-a-bitch in a Ragnarok costume down with her.

She swung and ducked, watching as the actress gracefully stretched and glided across the ground to parry and retaliate. All she needed was for one more…

CLANGGGG!

Their weapons struck again, and using all the power she could muster, Lightning pushed back as vehemently as she could.

"STOP!" a shrill voice called from the crowd.

Lightning had used the push to jump back far enough. There still wasn't much space between her and the actress, but it was enough for her to flick her blade so that the top half began to convert.

"STOP! I NEED… TO GET… THROUGH!"

The actress was now rushing forwards to close the gap, spear lifted and at the ready. It was now or never. One of them was going to win this battle right now and one was going to pay the ultimate price.

"FANG, STOP! IT'S LIGHTNING!"

Lightning's finger had just found the trigger when a red headed young woman burst through the crowd of people into their fighting circle… and Lightning's finger froze as if it had turned into stone.

"Vanille?" Lightning's world felt as if it had stopped and she wasn't even in a fight for her life anymore. That was Vanille. She had found Vanille. Vanille was there, alive and well, standing right in front of her.

"That's Lightning Farron!" Vanille cried out of breath, looking straight past Lightning and at the actress instead.

"Lightning Farron?"

And Lightning's stomach immediately curled, her blood turning into ice. That voice… It sounded so different but still so the same. It couldn't be…

Her helmeted head slowly turned away from Vanille to look back at the woman she had been fighting this entire time. The tip of the actress's spear was scarily close to Light's visor, but the woman's body remained perfectly still as the fierce dark eyes of the Ragnarok mask stared down at her. "Fan—augh…"

Fang's eyes widened in shock as Lightning's body suddenly crumpled to the floor. Behind where she had been standing now stood Caius with an outstretched hand that was still crackling with one of his incapacitation spells. His eyes were settled on Fang with a purely disinterested look on his face.

"You were taking too long."


	4. Chapter 4

"Hppphhhhh!" Lightning's eyes flew open as she came to. Her body tried lurching forward, but it felt as if something was pulling her back. Even her gasp had been muffled by the presence of something tight pressed across her lips—but she couldn't focus on that right now. There were much bigger things on her mind. She had clearly seen Vanille. And the woman who she had been fighting with… that voice… a bit sultrier than she had last remembered but still that same voice that had haunted her thoughts and dreams for such a long time now…

Fang.

Lightning's eyes frantically darted around to check her surroundings. It was late. The sky was a dark, midnight blue but the entire area was sufficiently illuminated by the bright glow of the moon. She was seated on a hard, almost cement-like surface and ahead of her was a wall of rusty bars. On the other side of the bars, a suit of empty PSICOM armor had been thrown into a heap in front of an armed man and woman who stood conversing with each other.

No Vanille.

And especially no Fang.

Lightning's breathing slowed as she forced herself to settle down. Part of her had half expected to see her redheaded ex-comrade standing outside of those bars and beaming at her with one of those characteristic Vanille smiles. And behind her, shifting her weight to one side as she stood with her hands firmly planted on her hips would be—no.

Lightning shook her head.

Fang was dead. Not even just dead. She was long dead. Deader than dead. She had transformed into a genocidal beast and then fell off a planet. There was no way that she could be anything less than dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. And even if she had somehow survived, the last thing she'd be doing would be parading around as the beast that had so eagerly made their lives miserable from the moment they found out about it… Yes. Fang was definitely dead. She had to be. But that voice… that familiar lilt in the way it had said her name…

"Mrrmmm." Lightning grunted and shook her head more violently this time. Fang was dead and that was that. She was on Pulse, for Etro's sake! How rare could it be to bump into someone whose accent sounded similar enough to Fang's? She had also been shaken up from the crash that had caused that pain in her side. That was more than enough to make her start hearing things. It was even enough to rattle her to the point where she probably imagined seeing Vanille, too. That was the only reasonable explanation.

Lightning released a deep breath through her nostrils, wholly satisfied with this explanation. Dehydration, tiredness, the crash, and the pain in her side must've caused her mind to play tricks on her. But speaking of that pain in her side… Light squirmed a bit in her sitting position, making sure to twist her midsection.

Nothing.

The pain was totally gone.

Lightning ruffled her brows and dropped her eyes down to skim over her body. She was no longer wearing her PSICOM suit, but was instead dressed in the Guardian Corps uniform that she had decided to wear under it. That would explain the empty PSICOM armor outside the bars. So apparently she had been disrobed and thrown into some sort of cage…

She tried wriggling her wrists, which had been pulled behind her to the other side of a pole that her back was pressed against. She felt the harsh burn of rope digging into her skin. Her ankles had been bound as well. She wasn't just in a cage. She was tied up in a cage.

She directed her vision back to the outside of the cage where the two Pulsian guards were still wrapped up in conversation. With her eyes on the guards the entire time, she stretched out her fingers to blindly feel the ground behind her. Someone had done a pretty messy job of clearing the cage out. Even in the small space of concrete that her fingers could reach, she was able to quickly snatch a small stone from the ground. She could feel that the stone was long enough to reach up to cut at the binding around her wrists like a saw, but she could also feel how thick the ropes were. She wasn't sure how long the Pulsians were planning on keeping her locked in this cage, but she was pretty sure that her best bet at an escape would mean working to cut that rope as quickly as possible…

* * *

"I was able to get a good look at her when I went to check out the wound in her side," Vanille stated from her seat on one of the plushy cushions in their luxury tent. After the spectacle at the amphitheatre, Caius had ordered that the 'viper intruder' be taken to one of their look-out posts a good hike away from New Paddra. The area was considered an ideal place for temporarily housing prisoners because it was distanced far enough from the city for the prisoners to not be a threat. It was also situated in one of the thicker parts of Gran Pulsian wilderness, where if the prisoner somehow escaped, it was certain that she'd quickly get lost and recaptured. "It's definitely Lightning."

"And who is Lightning again?" Noel asked from near the tent's entrance flap. He had been confused during most of the ordeal that focused around the pink-haired stranger, from Vanille's frantic break-up of the fight all the way to Fang's eerie silence that had stretched on afterwards.

"It's soldier girl!" Sazh exclaimed from another part of the tent. His eyes were fixed on the dynamic file cabinet that was tilted in his hands with the pink-haired soldier's picture still filling the screen. "I remember her from our Sanctum break-out! I'm pretty sure she tried to shank me…"

"So she's a longstanding PSICOM officer?"

"No, she's a good guy," Vanille responded. "Or she should be a good guy… Remember the other l'Cie we told everyone about? The ones that helped us?"

Noel nodded. Years ago, when he and the Cocoonian refugees had first met, a lot of stories had been told about how a small group of Cocoonians had also been turned l'Cie and played a major role in helping the Gran Pulsians escape the floating planet. But as time passed and the stories began to take lives of their own among the people, the Cocoonians' roles in those stories began to get smaller and smaller until they were barely even mentioned anymore.

"Well, she was one of them! The Cocoonian girl!"

"Ohh kayyy…" Noel rubbed his chin as he tried to remember bits and pieces from the older tales. "So she was the one who used to train with Fang all the time, right?" He looked to his side where Fang, still dressed from the neck down in her Ragnarok costume, was quietly leaning against one of the tent poles. She hadn't spoken a word since right after her fight, when she had volunteered to escort the warriors who were transporting the PSICOM soldier to the look-out post. She was currently standing with her arms folded against her chest, seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on around her, staring at the ground with a far off look in her eyes.

"Yeaaaa, I guess you can say that she was Fang's old 'workout' buddy."

"Oi. Vanille…"

All heads popped up to turn towards Fang, who had finally been broken out of her trance by Vanille's comment. She was staring at the younger girl with a tired look on her face.

"Let's just not."

"Not what?" Vanille asked innocently enough. Her expression was playfully challenging, and she appeared to be the only person in the tent who was not surprised by Fang's sudden return to reality. "Not talk about how while me and Sazh were wasting away in a PSICOM prison cell—"

"Oh, Vanille, come off it."

"—you and Lightning were up thousands of feet in the air—"

"Vanille…"

"—DOING IT?!"

Fang's face screwed into an agitated expression. "And how would you know that?"

"Rygdea told me," Vanille replied haughtily.

"And how would Rygdea know? I can bet'cha my bottom dollar he wasn't invited."

"Most of the Lindblum knew! I heard you two weren't exactly quiet about it."

"Okay, okay. Settle down, kids," Sazh interrupted, lowering his hands in a calming motion while Noel silently mouthed the word 'wow'. "So question is still out there, whether she once did the nasty with Fang or not—as nasty as that is in itself—"

"Sazh, seriously?"

"—is she a threat or isn't she?"

The tent grew silent as everyone stopped to mull over the question.

"She can't be," Vanille finally answered, shaking her head. "Cid or Rygdea would've told us if she was fighting for the other side. And she knows enough to expose them. There wouldn't still be a Cavalry if Lightning was working for the Sanctum, right?"

"She kinda did stop when she saw Vanille," Noel thought aloud. "She could've easily shot Fang there, but she didn't. I guess that counts for something, too."

"Well, whatever you guys are counting for, you'd better count quick," Sazh warned. "Because if you haven't made up your minds before Caius gets back from Yeul's doctor appointment, there'll be no hope for that girl."

"But if Caius gets back and she's not here, then what? She knows where our city is. He'll want to skin everyone at this post alive if we let her off," Noel said. He had had his fill of watching innocents get tortured or killed over this war, but he had also seen the wrath of Caius firsthand. If the man thought that this woman could endanger Yeul by bringing an army back to New Paddra, he would have no problem using the bodies of everyone at this post as a fear motivator for the city's army.

"But we can't let him kill her, either," Vanille quickly argued. "Not without good reason! She was our friend and she apparently has inside access to PSICOM! Maybe she'll help us!"

"It's been over four years," Sazh put in soberly with a shrug. Noel's words about Caius had made him come to a certain realization, and saving some unlucky girl was nowhere near as important as going home to his son. "People change. Look at you. You can't honestly say you're the same person you were four years ago, right? And she did show up armed in a PSICOM uniform."

"She met you armed in a PSICOM uniform!" Vanille retorted. "Fannngggg!" Vanille looked to Fang for help, but the older woman was once again lost in her own thoughts.

"Maybe we can make a case for her," Noel offered, trying his best to look hopeful. "We can't let her go, but Caius sometimes listens to me. If we prove that she isn't a threat and that she can even be an asset, then maybe he'll let her stay."

"No." Once again, Fang caught everyone by surprise with her sudden entrance back into conversation. She was still gazing at the ground, but it was apparent that her mind had returned from wherever it had been earlier. "She has to leave."

"Thank yooouuuu," Vanille ground out in a relieved sigh. "Now we need—"

"No. No we."

"Huh?" Vanille's face dropped as Fang lifted her head to make eye contact with her.

"No we. Noel is right. Caius will be looking for blood after she escapes. So I'm going to put this entire one on my back."

"But I—"

"And no buts." Fang shook her head. "I want you lot to stay as far out of this as ya can. As much of a dick as Caius can be, he's still a fair man. If he knows I acted alone, he'll try to punish me alone, and I can take it."

Vanille still had an unsure look on her face as Fang pushed herself away from the pole so that she was now standing up straight.

"Besides…" Fang continued, "What were the chances of all of this playing out the way it did, hm? If Lady Luck wants me to talk to Lightning Farron so badly, who am I to disappoint her?"

* * *

Lightning wriggled her wrists again.

The ropes twisted and swayed, granting her a little bit more give than she had before. She had been sawing at the ropes for a little while now and she suspected that she was nearly a fourth of the way through them, but the ropes were only a small fraction of the battle. She would still have to find a way to cut the binding around her ankles, escape her cell, and get past the—

"Ragnarok!"

Lightning's head shot up on hearing the guards simultaneously call the name… and then her heart immediately stopped.

Time almost froze still in Lightning's eyes as a third person sauntered up a dark pathway, partly shrouded by trees, from her far left. Shimmery, blue threads dangled from the newcomer's body as she calmly moved forward, an unmistakable air of entitlement in her walk as her hips lightly swayed with each step. Lightning immediately pegged this woman as the actress she had fought with earlier that day, but unlike earlier that day, the actress was not donned in her full costume.

She was no longer wearing her mask.

Lightning's eyes were instantly glued to the actress's face, taking in everything from the wavy mane of dark hair on top of the woman's head to each delicate feature on the woman's bronze face. She was sure she didn't blink the entire time that the woman seemingly moved in slow motion towards the two guards. Then the actress looked her way, locking serious emerald eyes with Lightning's for a brief second, and the pinkette's throat went dry.

Her mind could still be playing tricks on her. She could still be unconscious. The Pulsians could've even drugged her… because she recognized that face. And that face was the face of a ghost.

Fang was not dead.

* * *

"Ragnarok!" the two surprised guards gasped in unison as Fang made her way up the path.

Fang didn't immediately respond but instead let her eyes wander around the small area. She rarely made trips out to this post and she had certainly never visited a prisoner here before. No PSICOM soldiers—at least to her knowledge—had ever made it close enough to the city for them to have to use it as a holding space. The first thing she noticed was the armor and weapon case that had been carelessly thrown to the side. Her eyes then jumped towards the small line of cages that were situated not much further. She had been told that this area had once been used as a place for trappers to house rare animals, the kind that were worth more alive than dead. As her eyes dropped down to briefly land on the exotic pink-haired woman on the cage floor, staring wide-eyed at Fang in what looked to be nearly a catatonic state, she couldn't help but see the irony in it all.

"Ragnarok!" The guards repeated their greeting and straightened their stances as Fang slowed to a stop in front of them.

For some reason, Fang couldn't help but glance back towards the pink-haired woman in the cage again. Lightning was still staring at her through those wide, disbelieving eyes, but something minor had changed in her expression. Her brows were somewhat creased, almost in perplexity, as her gaze quickly ticked back and forth from Fang to the guards.

Fang studied Lightning for a moment more, silently trying to gauge her facial expressions before finally asking, "What's the meaning of this?"

"The… excuse me?" the female guard responded.

"You heard me." Fang turned away from the cages to face the two in charge. "What's the meaning of this? These cages are for animals. Not guests."

"Guest? Ragnarok… she's a prisoner."

"She," Fang corrected in a stern tone, "is no prisoner. She's a guest. An honored guest, at that. And you have her tied up in some dirty cage."

"But she attacked—"

"Do you know who she is?" Fang asked, lifting a hand out in Lightning's direction. "She's the girl from the stories, the girl as quick as lightning who fought by my side to help free OUR people from Cocoonian tyranny. And this is how you treat her?"

"She's _that _girl from the stories?" the male guard asked, now anxiously looking back and forth from Fang to their prisoner. "I am extremely sorry, Ragnarok. We didn't know. But General Caius ordered—"

"General Caius ordered?" Fang asked with a slightly taken aback look on her face. "Kinsman, what does your Ragnarok order?"

The guard took a hard swallow and shook his head, more to himself than to Fang. "Ragnarok, she's PSICOM. She attacked you and others. Are you saying we should just let her—"

"Kinsman…" Fang interrupted, giving her voice a sort of softness that it hadn't held before while still keeping some of its authoritative edge, "Listen. I'm not asking you to give her the world on a silver platter. I'm just asking you to treat a woman who once risked her neck for our people like a fucking human being. Don't have her sitting out here in a cage like some kind of dog. Fix a small tent for her. And to make sure nothing goes wrong, once it's set up, I'll even guard the thing my damned self."

"Ragnarok, are you sure?"

Fang looked over her shoulder to peek at Lightning, who was now attentively sitting up and staring at them with a more critical expression on her face. She turned back to the guards and nodded. "Positively."

* * *

Lightning continued to watch Fang and the guards through wary eyes.

Sounds that she just couldn't make sense of drifted into her cage as the three talked, and Lightning could only guess that they were speaking a language native to Pulse. However, there was one word that Lightning could clearly pick out from the conversation.

Ragnarok.

The guards were calling her Ragnarok, and she was clearly answering them as such. And the more Lightning watched them, the more cues she began to pick up from their body language. It was almost a strange dynamic, watching the three of them interact. Fang never strayed from her calm and stoic demeanor while the guards seemed to be running through a whole spectrum of different actions and emotions. Moving in then shrinking away… Trying to catch Fang's eye before bashfully looking elsewhere… Speaking loudly just to let their voice waver once they had gained her attention… It was as if they were in love with her but afraid of her at the same time.

More loud, unintelligible words were spouted before the two guards briskly hurried off along the dark path into the tress. Lightning followed them for as long as she could with her eyes, subconsciously begging for them to turn back around. Whatever analytical thoughts she had been trying to piece together seconds before immediately disintegrated the moment she realized that she was now alone in the area with a supposed-to-be-dead woman.

Fang didn't immediately approach the cage, but instead moseyed over to where Lightning's armor had been tossed to the ground. The Pulsian stood there, gazing at the pile for a moment, before dropping down to take hold of the weapon case that lay next to the PSICOM suit.

Lightning just stared, her heart rate steadily rising with each rapid breath she took, as Fang slowly pulled her gunblade from its case to turn in her hands. A soft, familiar smile pulled at her lips as she studied the weapon. After a few more examining turns, the woman lightheartedly shook her head and slid the gunblade back into its case. She then pawed at the ground to pick up something too small for Lightning to see and tucked the item away in her costume before lifting back to her feet.

With the gunblade case now slung over her shoulder, she moved towards the cage calmly, almost cautiously, until she was standing in front of the small prison's door. A wide, metal bar that was set horizontally across the cage door blocked Lightning's view of what happened next, but with a loud pop, Fang was able to break the lock and toss it into the grass.

Then her eyes were on Lightning.

Lightning couldn't help but feel her cheeks heat at the attention. Fang was staring at her with a sort of mystified look on her face, assessing her nearly the same way she had been assessing the gunblade earlier.

It only took a few steps before Fang was towering over the sitting Light. Her gaze visibly drifted down from Lightning's eyes to land on her lips. She leaned forward to reach at the tape that had been plastered across the soldier's mouth, but just as her fingers were about to graze the Cocoonian's cheek, she paused. Her expression switched from wonder to uncertainty as she thought better of the idea and pulled her hand back to her side. Instead, she took a step back to squat down at Light's feet and reach for the soldier's ankles.

"Mphh!" Lightning took in a sharp breath and jumped, trying to pull her legs away as Fang's hands neared them. A look of hurt quickly flashed across the Pulsian's face at the movement as she misinterpreted Light's reaction. The flinch hadn't been purposeful. Lightning had barely been thinking about it when her body reacted. Things were just becoming too real too fast, and in the back of her mind she knew that if Fang were to touch her, then that would confirm that this was all really happening. You can't touch a ghost.

"It's okay." Fang calmed, looking Light earnestly in the eyes. "I won't…" She stopped to take in a deep breath as she rethought her words, "I don't wanna hurt ya. I'm here to help." Once again, Fang reached. This time, she was able to gently place her hands on Light's legs, right above the knotted ropes. It was only a slight touch, with her fingertips barely pressing against skin, but for Lightning the sensation would've felt the exact same way as if she would've had her legs in a vice grip. "But I can't help unless ya let me, okay?" Fang nodded as she spoke. Her eyes and tone were so encouraging that Lightning couldn't help but blankly nod along with her. "Good."

Fang's hands slipped away from Lightning's skin to swiftly untie the ropes around her ankles. When she had successfully pulled the last knot loose, she slipped behind the pole at Lightning's back to begin working on those too. Light heard a soft snort before feeling Fang's fingers dig into her fist to wrench out the rock that she had previously been trying to cut her binds off with. She'd forgotten that she had still been holding it.

"Alright. Up we go," Fang breathed, taking Lightning by the elbow to help her to her feet. Immediately, Light tried to pull her wrists apart, but found that they were still bound together. "Sorry 'bout that, but I still have to take precautions. Can ya walk okay?"

Fang waited for Lightning to nod in response before giving her an approving half-smile. "Good. This way."

With her hand still lightly holding Lightning's elbow to guide her, Fang directed them into a dense thicket in the opposite direction of the forest path that the guards had taken. They moved quickly yet steadily, careful to avoid low hanging branches and high roots. Lightning was especially aware of the heavy sound of her own breathing, which almost seemed to compete with the snapping of twigs beneath their feet as Fang coolly led them through the forest, appearing totally un-phased by the whole situation.

"So…"

Light's eyebrow ticked as her head jumped to the side to look at Fang.

"I see ya were still able to join the force even after everything that had happened, huh? Congratulations, officer."

It was then that Lightning noticed that Fang was looking down at the Guardian Corps badge that was pinned to her shirt. When they were in high school, Lightning's goal to one day join the GC had always been a bone of contention between the two. Lightning thought that she could use the position to better serve her community, but Fang could never see past the uniform that had abused her people for so many years. And now, despite everything that Fang had done—getting her turned into a l'Cie, ruining her chance at a normal life, trying to destroy her planet—Lightning couldn't help but feel her cheeks burn with a tinge of embarrassment for wearing the badge.

"I asked about you, ya know."

Lightning's head whipped around to Fang again in confusion.

"I mean, uh… shit. Nevermind." Fang focused her gaze forward, her brows crinkled worriedly as if she had just made a big mistake. "But uh, ya look well. All things considered, of course. Oh. Here we go."

Fang gave Lightning's elbow a little squeeze to slow her down as they neared a break in the tree line where the ground dropped off below. As they neared the ledge, Lightning could hear the unmistakable sound of rushing water.

"Hey."

Lightning's breath caught, startled, as Fang's hands rested on her forearms to spin her around so that they were directly facing each other. Fang was staring at her again in that same way she had been staring at her in the cage. Her eyes desperately moved across Light's face as if they were in search of something until the woman finally released a deep breath and let her hands run down Light's arms back to her elbows.

"I know ya must hate me, and I know there's no way I can make up for everything I've put ya through. But at least…"

She dug into a hidden pocket in her costume to pull out a small anti-grav device. When the guards took off Light's PSICOM armor, they must've found the anti-grav unit and taken that off of her too.

"You still carry one of these around with ya everywhere ya go, dont'cha?"

Fang looked from the little device held between her fingers back to Lightning's face. She then took the Cocoonian by surprise by moving in closer and lifting a hand to gently cradle the pinkette's cheek. Lightning's heart rate spiked. There was something so familiar about this—something she had tried forgetting a long time ago that instantly came rushing back to her with one touch. The feeling of Fang's skin on hers or the warmth of her body heat as they stood a hair's width away from each other, all the way down to the way her eyes focused on Light as if there was no one else in the world… Lightning never expected to run into Fang during this mission, but in any scenario that she had dreamt up where the two of them would meet again, she certainly never anticipated this.

"It was good seeing you…"

Suddenly Lightning's cheek grew warm, and not warm in that flesh-on-flesh sort of way, but abnormally warm. Her breathing began to slow and her limbs grew heavy. Even the chatter of the forest had become distorted in some sort of weird, subdued way. She tried to move her head away from Fang's hand, but the action felt too tiring. What was happening?

"But if I ever catch you around here again…" Fang's breath grazed Light' cheek as the Pulsian woman leaned in even closer. Light felt the weight of something small drop into her shirt pocket followed by the relief of the binds at her wrists being loosened. "…I'll run my spear straight through your belly."

Lightning's eyes widened as all of a sudden, all she could see was sky. All of her senses came rushing back to her at once. Her breathing was back to normal and her limbs didn't feel weighed down, but her stomach was dropping and the wind was heavily rushing past her.

She was falling.

Before she could even open her mouth to scream, a staticky hum filled her ears, immediately followed by a sharp tingling sensation that ran across her skin. She wasn't falling anymore. Instead, she was being held static by the electromagnetic cushion of an anti-grav device.

She took in a relieved breath, and her eyes shot upwards. She could barely make out the ledge that she had just been standing on with the round shape of Fang's head peering over it for just a second before pulling back and disappearing completely.

Lightning huffed in disbelief and lifted a hand to rip off the tape that covered her mouth. Her eyes were still locked on the spot where Fang's head had just been. "She pushed me off a cl—arrghh!"

With a loud zap, the cushion from the anti-grav disappeared and Lightning's world instantly became inundated with water.

"Augh!" She gasped as she fought the strong current to break the surface of the water. She had been so focused on Fang and the disappearing ledge that she had damn near blocked out the observation that the ledge hung above a river.

Water filled her nostrils and ears as she was once again pulled under. She thrashed wildly beneath the water as it twisted and spun her, using as much energy as possible to continually make her way up to the surface until she finally reached a calm spot and was able to scramble to the pebbled riverbank.

She couldn't be entirely sure if it was from the wetness seeping into her skin or the excitement of it all, but Light's entire body trembled as she lay back against the mud and smooth rocks that composed the bank. Not only was Fang alive, but she was also being revered as some admirable figure for her Ragnarok metamorphosis—acting out stupid plays to celebrate attempted genocide! She was practically laughing at how she had taken away Lightning's father, home, diploma, or any shot of the life she had once hoped for but could now never have! And to ice the cake, the bitch pushed her off a cliff!

Then there was that feeling when she had the nerve to cup her cheek the way she did… What was that? Drugs, perhaps? No. Lightning was sure she had felt it once before, but she just couldn't put a finger on where. And that line?

'I asked about you.'

Lightning grit her teeth and planted her hands into the mud to shakily pull herself to her feet. None of it made sense.

From the corner of her eye, a little further up the bank, something shiny caught her attention. She carefully made her way over to the object and felt at least a bit of relief on coming upon her gunblade. She pulled the weapon from its case and checked the cartridge: no bullets.

She grumbled something to herself and glanced up the river.

She needed to get back to Cocoon.

* * *

Unlike during the day, the halls of Sanctum headquarters were dark and desolate at this late hour as Lightning stormed down one particular hallway. Her face was heated and her jaw was tightly clenched. It was by sheer luck that in the middle of her Pusian trek, she had stumbled upon a small dump where she was able to find a discarded compass, amongst other handy tools. It took her quite a long time to figure out where exactly she should be going, but eventually she was able to make it to her team's designated pick up point.

However, between her journey across Pulse and her trip back to Cocoon, she had been given a lot of time by herself to think. And the more she thought, the more sense she was finally able to pull from her short walk with Fang, and she was pretty sure that she knew where she could find the answers to some of her questions.

It was like she had tunnel vision as she moved down the hall, barely making note that the light in Commander Nabaat's office was turned off as she marched past it. That didn't matter right now, though. There was only one person who she wanted to debrief with, and just as she had hoped, the light in his office was still on.

"You knew!" Lightning hotly accused as she burst through the door of Commander Cid Raines' office.

"Sergeant Farron." Cid was seated at his desk with a mess of papers splayed out before him. His head was tilted upwards to meet Lightning's enraged glare and he appeared entirely unfrazzled by the outburst except for the look of concern that washed over his face as he took the young woman in. "You're back. I was so worried when we got word that your mission—"

"Oh, cut the crap, Cid. I know you—" Lightning stopped to distrustfully look around the office. She made sure to close the door that she had just flung open before spinning back towards Cid and cutting her voice into a venomous hiss as she said, "You knew she was alive!"

That look of concern never left Cid's face as he studied the young woman before him. "Lightning, you've been through a lot these past few days. Have you been to the medical facility yet?"

"Fang, Cid! I saw her!"

And just like that, Cid's face grew serious. "Fang is no longer with us, Lightning. We all know that."

"You know, the whole trip back I just kept thinking about it," Lightning began, disregarding Cid's statement and shaking her head as she started pacing back and forth in front of the commander's desk, "She said she asked about me, and it didn't make sense until I realized… who else could she have asked about me to but you?"

"Lightning, you're tired and disoriented—"

"DON'T YOU EVEN!" Lightning exploded, rounding on Cid to point a threatening finger at him. "I know who I saw, and if you keep playing dumb with me, then maybe I won't be so inclined to play dumb with everyone else about your extra-curricular activities anymore!"

Cid opened his mouth to reply but couldn't think of anything to say, so instead he let out a long, relenting sigh. "We've only known for a year."

"A year?!" Lightning's eyes widened. "You've known for a whole year and you didn't tell me?!"

"It's not what you think—"

"What gives you the right to keep that kind of secret from me?! Don't you think I deserved—that maybe all of us deserved to know?!"

"If you'd just let me explain—"

"And you, of all people! You're the one who left her for dead when her radio signal went dark four years ago, but now you're the only one who gets the Fang rights?! That's total bullshit and you know—"

"SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER YOU!" Cid finally boomed, slamming his fist against his desk.

Lightning jumped at the intensity of Cid's interruption, but it was his words that made her feel as if she had swallowed her tongue. "What?"

Cid lightly cleared his throat and tugged at the inside of his collar to settle himself before sympathetically looking back to Lightning. "Lightning, she doesn't remember you. In fact, she doesn't remember any of her time as a l'Cie. She won't agree to let us run tests to prove it, but we believe that the quick transformations between her human and Ragnarok form took a toll, physically and psychologically, on her brain. That's why I didn't tell you. You weren't talking me at the time and it felt distasteful to just drop that kind of bomb on you, especially with everything else you already have on your plate."

Lightning just gazed at Cid as if he were some sort of alien creature. "No." She shook her head. "Now I know you're lying. She recognized me. She knew who I was. She said that she asked about me."

"Yes, that's exactly right. She asked about you," Cid said, leaning across his desk with his palms pushed together. "She asked things about you that she already should've known. 'Does she really' this and 'Is it true that she' that, or how the two of you acted together on the Lindblum. She was confirming details."

"But she mentioned personal things…" Like Lightning's aspirations to become a GC officer, or remembering how Lightning always carried around an anti-grav device. Fang would especially remember that because it was the main thing that stopped their first date from being a total disaster.

"Of course she would know a personal thing or two with Vanille whispering in her ear all day. You were the one who informed me of how close their relationship is. You don't think whatever she told you were all things that she could've told Vanille before she transformed? I'm sorry Lightning, but Fang only remembers you as another Cocoonian girl who ignored her in high school."

Lightning took a hard swallow. She could picture a frustrated Fang complaining to Vanille about how Lightning was so committed to join the Guardian Corps, just as she could picture an excited Fang rushing to tell Vanille how well their first date had ended. And there was that strange way that Fang just kept staring at her… before pushing her off a cliff and into a river.

"Then why would she talk to you?" Lightning asked, still having a hard time wrapping her head around all of this. "If she doesn't remember me, she certainly doesn't remember you."

"She didn't remember me," Cid admitted. "We sent a small Cavalry group to Gran Pulse with supplies to give to a small village that had been raided by PSICOM. While our men were approaching the village, they were ambushed by a group of Gran Pulsian soldiers. Fang and Vanille were in that group and Vanille just so happened to recognize one of the soldiers as a man who had helped her and Sazh Katroy escape through the portals years ago. Not much later, we set up a web conference for Rygdea to meet with them, and that's when we first noticed Fang's lack of memory. Vanille didn't know Rygdea was part of the Cavalry, so she was unable to fill in any gaps for Fang before the meeting. When Rygdea tried reminiscing with Fang about their adventures on the run while Vanille had been imprisoned, she was at a loss. I think her curiosity more than anything is why she agreed to stay in contact with us."

Cid waited a moment for Lightning to reply. When she didn't, he took a breath and continued. "I know that we've had our differences in the past and there are things about my job that you don't approve of… but I still consider myself to be your and Serah's guardian."

Lightning rolled her eyes and scoffed. She hated when Cid would bring up the months right after her father had been arrested. Cid immediately swooped in on his white high horse to act as their guardian and take them in instead of using his power as temporary Primarch to drop the charges against her father in the first place. But Lightning knew that wouldn't happen. There needed to be an explanation as to how Fang could've infiltrated Sanctum headquarters the way she did. The Cavalry needed a fall guy to take that blame away from them, and the fates had pretty much hand delivered her father on a silver platter.

"I'm still trying to do what's best for you, and I didn't want to see you hurt. I know it's hard to take in, but what I said earlier is still true: Fang is no longer with us… at least the Fang that you knew. She has different views and different priorities. She doesn't remember whatever it is that you went through together. She only remembers being a second-class citizen—if even that—compared to you. And despite her lack of empathy towards Cocoon, she actually agreed to cooperate with us to find a way to peacefully end this war. I just assumed it would be easier on everyone—"

"I want in."

"Hm?" Cid's eyebrows lifted at the sudden request.

"You said you're working together to find a way to end this war, right?" Lightning asked, looking to Cid with a determined stare. "Well, I want in."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't allow that."

"What? Why not?"

"Our relationship with the Gran Pulsians is fragile enough as it is. Bringing you in might complicate things. And considering the inappropriate relationship—"

"The inappropriate relationship?" Lightning snapped in interruption.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Cid clarified with a stern expression on his face. "I just can't bring another wild card into an already volatile situation. I'm sorry, but this is not an issue I will move on."

"But…" From the look in his eyes, Lightning could tell that Cid was serious. "But I can tell people that I saw her. I can tell them you've been communicating with her."

"You won't," Cid softly shook his head.

"She took away everything from me," Lightning pushed. "What makes you think I wouldn't?"

"Lightning, whatever it is that you're looking for—vengeance, explanations, closure… you're not going to get it from Fang if she can't remember doing anything. The best I can do is advise you to forgive and forget. Now, you look like you're in need of a good night's rest. I'll have a jet bring you back to Bodhum. It's been a stressful weekend for all of us, and I'm sure your sister is worried sick about you."

* * *

Lightning felt as if she were in a daze as she drifted to her apartment door. She had tried sleeping on the jet from Eden to Bodhum, but her mind had been too muddled with thoughts from her conversation with Cid hours earlier.

Could Fang really not remember anything? Or was it just a rouse to get in good with the Cavalry while ridding herself of the blame?

Lightning numbly fumbled with her keys, not being able to concentrate on even that small of a task, but it didn't matter. The door was already unlocked.

She entered her apartment and ran a hand over her face as she softly closed the door behind her. She needed to force herself to take her mind off the Pulsian woman and get some rest. Obsessing over the issue was already driving her insane. Just moments ago, as she sat in front of the apartment building in her car, she had been fiddling with her seat buckle when she glanced up and froze. Fang was there, sitting in her passenger seat, lazily gazing out the window before turning her head to look at Lightning with those shining emerald eyes. The corner of her lips pulled up in one of her lazy, Fang smirks before she rolled her head away to look back out the window… It only took one blink for the woman's image to suddenly vanish.

No. It just had to be a rouse, Lightning suddenly thought to herself. Cid didn't know Fang well enough to sniff out one of her schemes, and this lost memory idea had 'mischief' written all over it. And even if she did lose all of her memories, that didn't excuse her from the huge crime she committed. She needed to be confronted.

"Lightning, is that you?"

The only problem was that Cid wasn't going to budge on his 'not letting Lightning participate' stance. As always, he was finding ways to keep her under his thumb.

"Honey, you're back." Two arms snaked around Lightning's waist to pull her into a light embrace from behind as a chin rested on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't meet you at headquarters. When I heard that your pod had signaled in, I figured you'd rather I meet you here… to avoid attention. How are you? Okay?"

Lightning forced a small, assuring smile and turned her head to catch Jihl Nabaat's olive green eyes gazing at her from her shoulder. "It's fine. I'm fine."

"Mmm…" Jihl hummed in content. She returned Lightning's soft smile with a drowsy one of her own and leaned forward to press their lips together. "I'm just so relieved you're home safe. Did you see anything interesting on Pulse?"

Lightning tensed. She had seen THE most interesting thing to see on Pulse. "No… not really," she lied, feeling Jihl's fingers stroke up and down the side of her hip. "Just a lot of grass and trees." Fang needed to be confronted for what she had done, but there were still so many questions Lightning needed to have answered. If she wasn't even guaranteed a visit with her father every month, she knew that she'd never get a chance to see Fang again if she gave her up now. "Did Serah call?"

"No…" Jihl sighed. "The phone did ring once while I was getting out of the shower, but they didn't leave a message."

"You didn't answer it?"

"You would've wanted me to?" Jihl asked in mild surprise. "Your sister wasn't exactly fond of me when I was instructing her in archery. Do you think she'd take it well if I answered your phone while you were gone?"

"Yeah, you're right," Lightning breathed, almost forgetting how much Serah actually did dislike Jihl. "I just thought… I don't know."

"Honey, when's the last time you slept?" Jihl's hand reached up to cup Lightning's cheek and the pinkette internally winced, still remembering that brief feeling of affection she had felt towards Fang's hand as it rested in that same place. "You look terrible. Here." Jihl turned Lightning around and took hold of one of her hands. "Come back to bed with me."

"Jihl," Lightning allowed herself to be led for a few steps before pausing, causing Jihl to curiously turn back around as well, "The mission that I went on… how often do those pop up? I mean, do you think there'll be any more going back to Pulse soon?"

"It's hard to say," Jihl replied. "It all depends on whether it's more efficient to use external rescue crews. Most of the interplanetaries we use for quick drop and picks are for reconnaissance of some sort, like the botany mission next week to help catalogue Pulse flora."

"Can I join it?"

"The botany mission?" Jihl's brows lowered suspiciously. "I would've thought after seeing 'just a lot of grass and trees' on your mission, you'd be done with them for awhile."

"I would've thought so too," Lightning shrugged, "But I guess there's just some plants Pulse that I'd like to get a second look at."

"I see…" Jihl said, rubbing her thumb over Lightning's knuckles. "I don't see any problem with it, so if you really want to join, consider yourself in."

Lightning gave a relieved, partial smile as Jihl pulled at her hand to continue their walk to the bedroom, but once again Lightning paused.

"Jihl, about our mission… Did anyone ever find the soldier who sent out the SOS?"

"Oh. About that," Jihl turned to smile at Lightning sweetly, "Turns out there was a malfunction in some of our communications machinery. There was no real SOS, it was a false alarm."

"So everything we went through down there was for—"

"Lightning, these things happen." Jihl gave Lightning's hand a squeeze before gently tugging at it once more. "So let's not think too much about it and just go to bed."

Lightning sighed and nodded, finally allowing Jihl to lead her away to the bedroom.

* * *

**A/N:** Hey, yall. Sorry about the long wait and if this chapter is pretty choppy. As always: Yall are awesome. Thanks for the feedback! And hope yall enjoy.


End file.
